how to bring about
social-ecological transformation
DEGROWTH & STRATEGY
Edited by
Nathan Barlow, Livia Regen, Noémie Cadiou, Ekaterina Chertkovskaya,
Max Hollweg, Christina Plank, Merle Schulken and Verena Wolf
D
EGR
O
WT
H
STRATE
GY
&
how to bring about social-ecological
transformation
Degrowth is a research area and a social movement that has the
ambitious aim of transforming society towards social and ecological
justice. But how do we get there? That is the question this book
addresses. Adhering to the multiplicity of degrowth whilst also arguing
that strategic prioritisation and coordination are key, Degrowth
& Strategy advances the debate on strategy for social-ecological
transformation. It explores what strategising means, identifies key
directions for the degrowth movement, and scrutinises strategies
that aim to realise a degrowth society. Bringing together voices from
degrowth and related movements, this book creates a polyphony for
change that goes beyond the sum of its parts.
" This book is the perfect gateway to strategy and action for our time. "
Julia Steinberger
" This is a book everyone in the degrowth community has been waiting for.
"
Giorgos Kallis
" This is a true gift, not only to degrowthers, but to all those who
understand the need for radical change. "
Stefania Barca
" Above all, Degrowth & Strategy is a work of revolutionary optimism. "
Jamie Tyberg
www.mayflybooks.org
how to bring about social-ecological
transformation
degrowth
s t r a t e g y
&
may f l y
Published by Mayy Books. Available in paperpack
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© Authors remain the holders of the copyright of their own texts. ey may
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ISBN (Print) 978-1-906948-60-3
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Edited by Nathan Barlow, Livia Regen, Noémie Cadiou,
Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, Max Hollweg,
Christina Plank, Merle Schulken and Verena Wolf
how to bring about social-ecological
transformation
degrowth
s t r a t e g y
&
vii
Praise for this book
“is book is what the degrowth movement needed the most: a well-reasoned and
empirically grounded compendium of strategic thinking and praxis for systemic
transformations. is is a true gift, not only to degrowthers, but to allthose who
understand the need for radical change.In an era of unprecedented challenges as the
one we are living through, this book should become essential reading in every higher-
education course across the social sciences and humanities.”
Stefania Barca, University of Santiago de Compostela, author of Forces of
Reproduction – Notes for a Counterhegemonic Anthropocene
“Emerging amidst the ruins of the destroyed (some call it developed) world, degrowth
is a powerful call for transformation towards justice and sustainability. is book takes
degrowth’s ideological basis towards strategy and practice, relates it to other movements,
and shows pathways that are crucial for the Global North to take if life on earth has to
ourish again.”
Ashish Kothari, co-author of Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary
“e book is an exciting source of hope for degrowth futures. It is a thoroughly readable
and ambitious book that sets out what degrowth wants to do and what it is actually
achieving. It contains many inspiring examples of new ways of living together, illustrating
how to share resources, create caring institutions, fair infrastructures, and new ways of
relating to humans and more-than-humans.”
Wendy Harcourt,International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University
Rotterdam
“In contrast to previous works on the topic the focus is rmly placed on the challenge
of how to achieve social-ecological transformation in the face of economic structures
and powerful vested interests committed to a utopian vision of sustaining economic
growth without end; a vision that pretends to be concerned for the poor while exploiting
them and destroying Nature. An alternative multi-faceted vision is outlined in the
most comprehensive exploration of the topic available, including addressing the role of
money, mobility, energy, food, technology, housing, and most importantly how to change
modernity’s various growth–obsessed social–economic systems.”
Clive Spash, Vienna University of Economics and Business, editor of Handbook of
Ecological Economics: Nature & Society
“We live in times of great despair and danger, but also great promise. is book is the
perfect gateway to strategy and action for our time, written by some of the very top
thinkers in the degrowth movement. It will help you create possibilities to transform our
world for the better.”
Julia Steinberger, University of Lausanne
“is is a book everyone in the degrowth community has been waiting for. Moving beyond
the diagnosis about the costs and limits of growth, this volume asks the question of what is to
be done and puts forward an ambitious political program of how we go from here to there.
e authors present a coherent vision of how dierent mobilisations at dierent scales can
come together and steer societies to what now seems politically impossible – degrowth.”
Giorgos Kallis, ICREA Professor, ICTA-UAB, author of Limits and e Case for
Degrowth
viii
“What is to be done about the Global North? Young economists of the degrowth
generation share strategies on food, housing, energy, transport, technology, and money.
Practical, stimulating, and provocative.”
Ariel Salleh,author of Eco-Suciency & Global Justice
“How do we go from here to there? Read this book and you will nd how societies can
undertake a transformation towards degrowth.”
Federico Demaria, University of Barcelona, co-author of
e Case for Degrowth
“Above all, Degrowth & Strategy is a work of revolutionary optimism. e range of visions
oered in this text teaches us that we are better o nding a common ground in our
strategies and tactics than dwelling on our dierences, so that we may step into the future
together.With this text, the degrowth movement shifts its central focus from the what
and the why to the how. Be warned: this is for those to whom degrowth is an everyday
commitment and not a mere thought exercise!”
Jamie Tyberg, co-founder and member of DegrowNYC
“Degrowth & Strategyis an important collection of essays on a subject of the
greatest signicance and urgency. Particularly impressive is the emphasis on public
communication, workable political strategies and practical solutions.”
Amitav Ghosh, author of e Great Derangement: Climate Change and the
Unthinkable
“e most critical challenge isimplementingdegrowth – to ensure that production and
consumption meet basic needs, neither more (waste) nor less (poverty). is collection
confrontsstrategyhead-on, with a singular unity of purpose and a rich variety of
approaches. A must-read for all concerned about our uncertain future.”
Anitra Nelson, University of Melbourne (Australia), co-author ofExploring
Degrowth, and co-editor of
Food for DegrowthandHousing for Degrowth
“is book makes a timely and essential contribution to a number of intersecting
debates regarding the how of social-ecological transformation. Expertly edited, the book’s
emphasis on philosophies, strugglesand strategiesin more ‘in principle’
terms complements very eectively the consideration of concrete practices across a wide
range of societal sites and sectors. A must-read for scholars and activists alike.”
Ian Bru, University of Manchester
“at we need to moveto a degrowth economyis becoming ever more obvious. How
we go about achieving it has hitherto been less clear, and less discussed in degrowth
literature. is comprehensive and astute survey oftransformativestrategies, both those
already in train and those that need to come into force, provides an essential guide.”
Kate Soper, London Metropolitan University
ix
“Nothing grows forever, and the same is true of economies. In this urgently needed book,
an impressive group of academics and activists consider how we get to an economic
system that operates within natural limits and with regard to social justice. Illustrated
with inspiring case studies, the authors focus on the how, because the planet and our
natural world are already showing us the why.”
Martin Parker, Bristol University, author of Shut Down the Business School
“e structural, cultural and ideational barriers to degrowth have long been recognised
by its advocates. Contributors to this collection respond to the challenges positively and
creatively by thinking about strategy and how this concept can be harnessed by diverse
social movements to initiate, inspire and institute bottom-up social-ecological change.”
Ruth Kinna, Loughborough University
“We need to go beyond envisioning degrowth but identify pathways towards it. is is
the rst book that provides a comprehensive and in-depth engagement with strategies for
degrowth, denitely leading us closer to a degrowth future. Required reading for anyone
who aims to realise degrowth.”
Jin Xue, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
“e Western growth model becomes increasingly untenable as a societal project, thereby
urging communities, researchers, and decision-makers to nd alternative pathways. To
guide us through these turbulent times and towards a future beyond growth, the authors of
Degrowth & Strategy provide a much-needed map – unprecedented in detail but also aware
of the yet unknown.”
Benedikt Schmid, University of Freiburg, author of Making Transformative
Geographies
“How can we better organise to achieve social and ecological justice in a nite world? is
is a big question with no easy answer. In an honest and thoughtful way, this book brings
multiple voices expressing diverse pathways to pursue social-ecological transformation.
What emerges from the presentation of dierent perspectives and strategies is not the
suggestion of one right way to bring about change but a healthy, pluralistic, thought-
provoking and respectful dialogue that can lead us in new and promising directions.”
Ana Maria Peredo, Professor of Social and Inclusive Entrepreneurship, University of
Ottawa & Professor of Political Ecology, University of Victoria
“In my classes, students keep circling back to the question – how do we move from
the current world driven by the logic of capital, endless growth, needless production
and consumption to a world that centres on justice, care, and living well in a way that
amplies life? is book provides what so many of us are craving for – thought-provoking
engagement with the issue of strategies for materialising social-ecological transformation.
e book oers theoretical frameworks, pathways, and practical examples of diverse
strategies for social-ecological transformations at work.It is a must-read for academics,
activists, practitioners, and ordinary people striving for an equitable and sustainable
world. I am grateful to the editors and authors for creating this excellent resource for
thinking and acting to facilitate a ‘strategic assemblage for degrowth’.”
Neera Singh, Geography & Planning, University of Toronto
x
Table of Contents
Forewords by Brototi Roy and Carola Rackete &
Introduction: Strategy for the multiplicity of degrowth by Merle Schulken,
Nathan Barlow, Noémie Cadiou, Ekaterina Chertkovskaya,
Max Hollweg, Christina Plank, Livia Regen and Verena Wolf
Part I: Strategy in degrowth research and activism
e importance of strategy for thinking about transformation
Chapter Radical emancipatory social-ecological transformations: degrowth
and the role of strategy by Ulrich Brand
Chapter A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik Olin Wright
by Ekaterina Chertkovskaya
Chapter Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far by Nathan Barlow
Degrowth movement(s): strategising and plurality
Chapter Strategising within diversity: the challenge of structuring
by Viviana Asara
Chapter Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a Degrowth International
by Andro Rilović, Constanza Hepp,
Joëlle Saey-Volckrick, Joe Herbert and Carol Bardi
Chapter Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from other
social-ecological movements by Corinna Burkhart, Tonny Nowshin,
Matthias Schmelzer and Nina Treu
Strategising with our eyes wide open
Chapter Social equity is the foundation of degrowth by Samantha Mailhot
and Patricia E. Perkins
Chapter Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth transformations
by Panos Petridis
Chapter Rethinking state-civil society relations by Max Koch
Chapter Strategic entanglements by Susan Paulson
Part II: Strategies in practice
Provisioning sectors
Chapter Food
Overview by Christina Plank
Case: e movement for food sovereignty by Julianna Fehlinger, Elisabeth Jost
and Lisa Francesca Rail
Chapter Urban housing
Overview by Gabu Heindl
Case: Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen by Ian Clotworthy and Ania Spatzier
Chapter Digital technologies
Overview & Case: Low-Tech Magazine and Decidim by Nicolas Guenot
and Andrea Vetter
Chapter Energy
Overview by Mario Díaz Muñoz
Case: e struggle against energy extractivism in Southern Chile
by Gabriela Cabaña
Chapter Mobility and transport
Overview by John Szabo, omas SJ Smith and Leon Leuser
Case: e Autolib’ car-sharing platform by Marion Drut
Economic and political reorganisation
Chapter Care
Overview by Corinna Dengler, Miriam Lang and Lisa M. Seebacher
Case: e Health Centre Cecosesola by Georg Rath
Chapter Paid work
Overview & Case: Just Transition in the aviation sector by Halliki Kreinin
and Tahir Latif
Chapter Money and nance
Overview & Case: e Austrian Cooperative for the Common Good
by Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and Colleen Schneider
Chapter Trade and decolonisation
Overview by Gabriel Trettel Silva
Case: Litigation as a tool for resistance and mobilisation in Nigeria
by Godwin Uyi Ojo
About the Authors
About the Editors
Acknowledgements
Forewords
By Brototi Roy, co-president of Research and Degrowth (R&D)
and co-founder of the Degrowth India Initiative
I rst came across the term degrowth in while I was a
master’s student in economics in New Delhi, India. I was in my
third semester and decided to take an elective course called “Key
concepts in Ecological Economics.” is course was the start of
my engagement with the term, the movement and the academic
scholarship on degrowth. With my friend and co-conspirator Arpita,
I started the Degrowth India Initiative to have discussions and
conversations on degrowth. Why, you ask? Because I was frustrated
with the way a lot of people in Delhi had embraced the “imperial
mode of living.” And although I didn’t know it at that time,
the Degrowth India Initiative was a strategy to link the research
carried out by the students in the university on sustainability and
environmental justice with ideas about degrowth, with the hope of
repoliticising the debate on social-ecological justice and equity in the
Indian context.
Fast forward to October , when I was in a public debate
on degrowth in Antwerp, Belgium. One of the questions asked
about the non-feasibility of degrowth was “What about the poor
garment workers in Bangladesh? Will you ask them to degrow?”
In the audience, there were quite a few of us who have been a part
of various degrowth initiatives and actions over the years, and we
shared our frustrations about this, and many other similar questions
often being asked about degrowth and how it harms the poor in the
Global South. Some go so far as to claim that people in the Global
North should continue consuming fast fashion because of these
garment workers, who are being done a favour and are kept in jobs
because of this.
But has anyone asked the garment workers if this is what they
really want, instead of just assuming and speaking on their behalf?
Is this their idea of meaningful employment? What led them to
work in these exploitative positions? And what would they consider
a meaningful transformation of their lives and livelihoods? For me,
a radical social-ecological transformation can only be achieved when
it is anti-colonial and feminist. A degrowth strategy for me is to
allow for the garment workers to speak their truths, collectively nd
solutions together, and never assume we know better.
is public event, despite being one of the most frustrating ones
in terms of misrepresenting degrowth, did help in bringing a bunch
of people together and has led to the creation of a degrowth group
in Belgium. Would the group be able to engage with the colonial
history of the country and strategise about what degrowth in the
Belgian context means? I remain hopeful about it.
Both the Indian and the Belgian initiatives were born out of
frustration with the current system and the need for social-ecological
transformation, due to the exploitative patterns of capitalism, based
on oppression and exploitation of marginalised communities and
nature by some sections of the world and society. Both initiatives
found degrowth ideas could help inform strategy while being critical
and self-reective.
From these two small anecdotes, I now turn to this edited volume.
In the last couple of decades, degrowth has ourished as an academic
sub-discipline and movement, with multiple books, articles, special
issues, conferences, talks, and debates being organised around the
topic. Yet not enough has been written on how one can go about
creating long-lasting changes towards justice and equity.
is is precisely what the book does. It is a very important and
impressive collection of strategies, which might or might not have
stemmed from similar frustrations as mentioned above, experienced
by the editors and authors, but which will denitely help, in the
years to come, others who are trying to nd solutions for social-
ecological transformation in their own contexts.
By looking at the dierent strategies for a degrowth pathway
and focusing on dierent aspects of the globalised world economy,
this book provides concrete proposals for social-ecological
transformations – albeit with a focus on the Global North. At the
same time, the book also engages with critical ideas of feminist and
decolonial degrowth in tangible ways – such as through the case of
global trade or considerations around the organisation of care. e
degrowth movement has been criticised for paying lip service to
feminist and decolonial ideas; this book shows that once we move
from the “why “question to the “how” question, one can’t ignore the
need for a holistic framework that is serious about its feminist and
decolonial views.
All in all, the book is a step forward in thinking together with
dierent degrowth initiatives and actors about how radical social-
ecological transformation can be realised. By bringing degrowth in
conversation with dierent other actors and movements ghting
for social-ecological justice and equity, such as the climate justice
movement, and providing concrete ways of engagement, I hope
to see this book create ripples for change towards radical societal
transformation towards justice and equity.
By Carola Rackete, Sea-Watch captain, and social and
environmental justice activist
I am staring at my tomatoes. I didn’t grow them, I rescued them
from a trash bin where they were suocating in plastic. I wonder
what happened to them before I found them, how they were shipped
from far away, who planted, harvested and processed them. I am sure
they were dreaming of a better place. Me too.
I am dreaming of agriculture that regenerates the soil instead of
depleting it. at sustains life for future generations and non-
humans alike. at provides people with meaningful work and
collective ownership of the land. A place where care for the
community of life is valued more than its destruction. I am
dreaming of a world where the tomatoes in my hands have come to
me in a completely dierent way.
It’s easy to imagine that better world once I start thinking about it.
But how do we transition from one tomato to the other? How do we
make that better tomato a reality? If degrowth is to have a part in our
future we need to draw a map for how to move on from one place
to the other. We need to dene not only the destination at the end
of that path, but also be able to share with other people how to nd
the trailhead and get started in a very practical way. is pathway of
transformation must be as credible and real as the tomatoes in front
of me.
is book is about these pathways of transformation – about
mapping what is ahead, how to nd the trailhead, what to bring
on the journey, how to get from one trail marker to the next, and
how to overcome expected obstacles. It is not only about ecological
transformation – which is how I got connected to the degrowth
movement – but about pathways towards better housing, care,
mobility and energy, and global social justice. All these pathways
intersect and lead us into the same direction of a future based on
justice, decolonialism and care for one another, based on the choice
of limiting economic and social practices that are set up to destroy
everyone.
If we can envision not only where we want to get to, but
also how we are going to get there, others might feel safe and
condent enough to join us on that journey. At rst, that path of
transformation may only be taken by those who already share our
vision of a just social-ecological future and who feel they have the
skills, motivation and opportunity to make a start. But one of our
most important challenges will be to practically demonstrate how
walking that path of transformation will be benecial for everyone in
our societies beyond those already engaged.
erefore, this book about degrowth transformation and strategy
is important as a tool to prepare for getting underway towards the
world of better tomatoes.
Introduction
Strategy for the multiplicity of degrowth
By Merle Schulken, Nathan Barlow, Noémie Cadiou, Ekaterina
Chertkovskaya, Max Hollweg, Christina Plank, Livia Regen and
Verena Wolf
We live in troubled times: climate emergency, rising inequality and
the COVID- pandemic are just some of the grand challenges we
are faced with. ese are not unfortunate coincidences caused by
humanity as a whole but the outcomes of a system oriented toward
perpetual economic growth and capital accumulation. It is a system
characterised by brutal injustices within and across societies – based
on class, gender and racial divisions, and uneven relations between
the Global North and the Global South. Addressing the current
multifaceted ecological, social and economic crisis requires not just
incremental but systemic change, which in this book we refer to as
social-ecological transformation (see Chapter for a denition).
Institutional responses to this crisis from those in power are not
enough to meet the scale of the social-ecological transformation
required. When it comes to climate change, for example, we are
well into the third decade of high-prole UN Climate Change
Conferences, where member states negotiate how to reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, emissions are only rising.
With states and corporations joining hands as the threat of climate
change becomes increasingly real, false solutions are being proposed,
including dangerous technologies and further nancialisation to keep
the economic engine running at full speed. ese supposed solutions
are wrapped into creative accounting to make them appear eective
and are communicated using elusive terminologies, such as “net-
zero” or “climate neutrality”, which create a sense of change while
continuing business as usual.
Parallel to this, many social movements have risen and keep rising
to oppose the current state of things. From anti-austerity, Black
Lives Matter, climate and environmental justice movements, to
autonomous, feminist, indigenous and peasant movements, people
across the world are boldly protesting against injustices, resisting
entrenched structures of domination and building alternatives. is
book emerged from discussions on degrowth, a burgeoning research
area and an emerging social movement that critiques the pursuit of
economic growth and capital accumulation and strives to reorganise
societies to make them both ecologically sustainable and socially just.
e degrowth vision of social-ecological transformation connects
with a mosaic of progressive bottom-up movements across the world
(Akbulut et al. , Burkhart et al. ). Together, we see these
movements as key agents of an urgently needed social-ecological
transformation.
In order to be eective, social movements have to confront the
agendas driven by corporate and state actors, who have the power
to ignore, water down, co-opt and criminalise transformative
eorts. Social movements often lack time and energy, capacities and
resources, and it is easy to run out of steam and feel that eorts to
bring change are futile. But there is no time for despair! What we
need to do is to organise better within and across the movements we
are a part of and to develop a more clear-eyed perspective on how to
confront the powerful interests and structures standing in the way of
systemic change. is is why the question of strategy is so important
for anyone engaged in eorts for social-ecological transformation.
is book aims to tackle the question of how systemic change can be
fostered despite the constraints we face.
Degrowth & Strategy: how to bring about social-ecological
transformation builds on existing research on degrowth and its vision
for a society with ecological sustainability and social justice at the
core. But it also takes this research further to dig more deeply into
the question of strategy. e book oers a conceptual discussion of
strategy and its relation to degrowth and social movements more
generally and investigates strategies in practice, drawing on a variety
of examples. In doing this, it brings together multiple voices from
degrowth and related movements, to create a polyphony that reects
the multiplicity of degrowth. is discussion, we hope, will help
the readers reect on questions of strategy and empower them to
apply this thinking in practice, contributing to more eective and
concerted eorts for social-ecological transformation.
e remainder of this introduction will be structured as follows.
We start by outlining a degrowth vision for social-ecological
transformation. Second, we trace the existing discussion on strategy
in the degrowth movement and explain why it is important to think
about strategy. ird, we turn to conceptualising how we understand
strategy in this book, which builds on and is closely aligned with our
understanding of degrowth. Finally, we introduce the book and its
structure, followed by a conclusion.
What is degrowth, and why does it need strategy?
We understand degrowth as a democratically deliberated absolute
reduction of material and energy throughput, which ensures
well-being for all within planetary boundaries. Contrary to
perpetuating economies driven by growth and prot, degrowth
oers an alternative vision for societies, centred on life-making,
ecological sustainability and social justice. Since degrowth is based
on the principles of autonomy, solidarity and direct democracy,
bottom-up organising is seen as key to making an equitable and
just transformation happen (Asara et al. ). Crucially, degrowth
also acknowledges the historical inequities of colonialism and neo-
colonialism, and therefore demands that the Global North reverse
the social and ecological burdens it imposes on the Global South.
Degrowth is a concept that comes from the European context,
but it connects to a pluriverse of ideas from around the world that
advocate for a good life beyond economic growth, capitalism, and
development (Kothari et al. ), where living well also means not
living at anyone else’s expense (Brand et al. ).
e term degrowth was coined in as décroissance by André
Gorz, a French philosopher whose thought has been an important
source of inspiration for those working on degrowth (Kallis et al.
, Leonardi ). In the early s, it was mobilised as an
activist slogan in France, Italy (decrescita), Catalonia (decreixement)
and Spain (decrecimiento), and décroissance as a social movement
emerged in Lyon and spread across France (Demaria et al. ). In
, the rst International Degrowth Conference for Ecological
Sustainability and Social Equity took place in Paris, which is also
when the term was translated into English. Since then, degrowth
has gained further traction in academic and (some) activist circles.
International degrowth conferences serve as key spaces for academic-
activist discussion and have been hosted from multiple locations
(Barcelona, Venice, Montreal, Leipzig, Budapest, Malmö, Mexico
City, Vienna, Manchester, e Hague).
Within the academic realm, degrowth today is a burgeoning
area of interdisciplinary research with the publication of hundreds
of articles and a growing number of books on the topic in the last
decade (Kallis et al. , Weiss and Cattaneo ). Multiplicity is
a key characteristic and arguably a strength of degrowth research,
as it draws from dierent theoretical perspectives and currents of
thought, and there is an acknowledgement that degrowth is not a
unied scientic paradigm (Paulson ). is allows degrowth
to be an inclusive conversation and a space for multiple voices that
share the basic premise that the growth imperative must be overcome
to ensure a good life for all (Barca et al. ). ere are also some
asymmetries and blind spots in the degrowth discussion. Critiques
from, for example, decolonial, ecosocialist and feminist perspectives
have pointed some of these out and have put forward paths for acting
upon them (e.g. Andreucci and Engel-Di Mauro , Dengler and
Seebacher , Gregoratti and Raphael , Nirmal and Rocheleau
). In this volume, we embrace the multiplicity of degrowth,
which, as the readers will notice, means that contributing authors will
sometimes take dierent stances on degrowth’s diverse manifestations.
Besides being a eld of interdisciplinary research, degrowth has also
been described as an emerging international social movement with
close connections to other social-ecological movements (Chapter ,
Chapter ; see also Akbulut et al. , Demaria et al. ). Others
prefer to describe degrowth as a community of activist scholars, or
a network of networks. Whatever one’s take on how to characterise
the institutional set-up of degrowth, we can see that multiple
international and regional groups have emerged and stabilised as
relevant actors within degrowth activism, albeit mostly in Europe.
International groups include, for example, degrowth.info (a web
platform for information related to degrowth), the Support Group (a
team supporting degrowth conferences) and Research & Degrowth (a
group of degrowth researchers). Many regional groups, in turn, have
organised themselves around research and activist communities, and
some of these have also hosted international degrowth conferences
or even formed a political party. However, groups and organisations
coming together around degrowth ideas have not yet found concerted
ways to collectively act together.
In this book, we argue that it is time to seriously address the
question of strategy for degrowth, whilst respecting its multiplicity.
is is not an easy path. It will involve a lot of negotiation and
deliberation and is likely to come with dierent and contradictory
views on how to bring about social-ecological transformation.
Without seriously addressing the question of strategy for degrowth,
the eorts of degrowthers and others fostering compatible visions
around the world risk remaining marginal and fragmented, staying in
the realm of ideas and fragile oases of alternatives. Or, when entering
spaces beyond the movement, they risk being co-opted or engaged
with in a one-sided way by actors opposed to systemic change.
Concerted actions and coordination would help to amplify the eorts
for social-ecological transformation and create more powerful ways to
act collectively. us, we believe that only a rigorous discussion on
strategy can help avoid this fragmentation or co-optation.
Degrowth and strategy so far
e lack of engagement with questions related to strategy by, for,
and within the degrowth movement rst became apparent during
the Malmö Degrowth Conference. A more or less coherent
degrowth vision of social-ecological transformation had, by then,
emerged. is vision covers dierent spheres of life, exemplied by
multiple existing small-scale initiatives and ideas for institutional and
policy interventions that would help them ourish. However, the
dicult question of how to foster degrowth –i.e., the question of
strategy – was conspicuously missing from this debate. In October
, a new generation of academic activists in the degrowth
movement vocalised this gap by publishing a piece entitled “Beyond
visions and projects: the need for a debate on strategy in the
degrowth movement” (Ambach et al. ) on the blog of degrowth.
info. e authors argued that the degrowth community of academics
and activists should critically reect on degrowth researchers’ then
predominant and implicit approach to strategy, which the authors
described as strategic indeterminism. To further this discussion,
degrowth.info launched a ten-part series on degrowth and strategy
(see Chapter ). Finally, a group of young activists and academics
– today known as Degrowth Vienna –decided to organise the rst
degrowth conference that had an explicit focus on strategies for
social-ecological transformation. e objective of this conference was
two-fold: rst, to create a space that would allow for an exchange on,
analysis of, and critical discussion about the role of strategy for the
degrowth movement and research; second, to strategically advance
degrowth as a concept within Austrian media, institutions, and
organisations.
e Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference: Strategies for Social-
Ecological Transformation took place from May to June
. It explored obstacles, pathways, and limitations of ongoing
and past transformations. e conference drew on the city of
Vienna’s intellectual history, from Red Vienna in the s and
the legacy of Karl Polanyi to the vibrant discussion of social-
ecological transformation taking place in the city today. Conference
contributions were grounded in the work of many academic
and activist groups in and around Vienna and supported by an
interdisciplinary body of knowledge. e conference opened up
a virtual space for an exchange on functioning, abandoned and
promising strategies for social-ecological transformation. ese,
the conference revealed, must include reections on the degrowth
movement’s own internal organisation and strategic orientation, as
well as alliance-building with other social-ecological movements, in
addition to the continuous work of decolonising the degrowth vision
and its praxis (Asara ).
By switching, relatively quickly, to an online format due to the
COVID- pandemic, the Degrowth Vienna organising team
widened the imagination of how the degrowth movement could
gather as a community. Moreover, despite the challenges of the
pandemic, the shift to an online conference allowed the discussion
around strategy to be more inclusive than an in-person format would
have allowed, with over , participants from both the Global
North and the Global South joining the conversation.
e editorial team of this book was initiated by some of the
organisers of the Degrowth Vienna conference and then joined
by fellow degrowth researchers interested in the issue of strategy.
Together, we concluded that the degrowth.info series and the Vienna
conference were only the rst steps for addressing strategy in relation
to degrowth and that much more discussion was still needed. We
drew on contributions to the blog series and the conference as a
point of departure for selecting key issues that we thought could
be deepened. e result was an -month process of coming to a
shared understanding of the selected issues, contacting authors,
reviewing drafts, asking for feedback, scrutinising our understanding
of strategy, revising our timeline (several times), and learning from
the diversity of perspectives and knowledge present in the degrowth
movement and the social-ecological movements that degrowth is
aligned with. In this sense, our book does not oer a comprehensive
survey of the existing literature on degrowth and strategy, but rather
puts forward our approach to selecting, framing and advancing key
debates.
Conceptualising strategy for social-ecological transformation
In order to bring about social-ecological transformation in the
face of powerful actors who employ various strategies of their own
to oppose change, we believe that an honest and critical discussion
about strategies must take place. In this section, we present the
understanding of the term “strategy” that we have developed for
and adopted throughout this book. at said, the conceptualisation
proposed here should not be misinterpreted as an attempt to close
the debate about what strategy is and what it should be about
in the context of degrowth. Quite to the contrary, we hope that
our contribution will be one helpful reference point that can
sharpen future engagement with strategy. Before we introduce our
conceptualisation, however, it is important to acknowledge that by
engaging with strategy we are dealing with a contested concept.
Dealing with a contested concept
Applying the concept of strategy to degrowth thinking and activism
is not a straightforward endeavour. In the history of Western
thought, engagement with strategy started in the modern era in
the context of eorts to apply rational methods of organisation to
warfare (Freedman ). From the s onwards, metaphors and
concepts surrounding strategy travelled from military thought to the
realms of business and management (Ibid.). Until today, strategy is
primarily associated with the military or the corporate world, and
hierarchical chains of command – contexts and characteristics that
are alien to the degrowth vision.
e source we have just cited, Sir Lawrence Freedman, is also not
your usual scholar to be quoted in a degrowth book. Freedman is
most known for his writings about and political involvement in
military matters. He has contributed to justifying powerful imperial
forces that we – as degrowth scholars and activists – condemn
and oppose. At the same time, he is the author of one of the most
comprehensive books on strategy in English, which is hard to miss
or ignore if one is trying to dig into the concept. In that book, he
also proposes the most encompassing and elaborated denition of
strategy we could nd, which we engage with later in this section.
We are aware that a progressive movement like degrowth needs
to be careful when dealing with the concept of strategy, and
referencing sources engaging with it, so as not to reproduce what we
advocate against. Examples of potential dangers of an unreective
application of strategy to degrowth thinking might include creating
a vanguard group concerned exclusively with strategising that
stands in hierarchical relation to the rest of the movement, thereby
stiing attempts to build more horizontal forms of governance
and potentially depriving the strategising process of feedback and
creativity. Talking about change in terms of strategy might also
invoke the notion that social-ecological transformation is only an
antagonistic process and downplay the importance of deliberative
practices or cultural change.
at said, within the debates on degrowth, the term strategy
already appears now and again, especially more recently given the
rising attention to the issue of strategy (e.g. Asara et al. , Koch
, Nelson ). So far, however, the term is rarely clearly
dened, is often used as a metaphor, and has not yet been subject
to conceptual and critical scrutiny (see Chapter ). Meanwhile,
attempts to engage with strategy for a bottom-up transformation
are by no means conned to the degrowth movement. Scholars
and activists in a variety of contexts have been tackling or at least
touching upon this uneasy terrain, trying to reclaim and rethink
strategy for progressive social change (e.g., Maeckelbergh ,
Maney et al. , Mueller , Parker ). e question of
strategy has also been raised in relation to various allied social
movements, ranging from agroecology, through the climate and
environmental movements, to Occupy and the Zapatista (e.g.,
Smucker , Staggenborg , Stahler-Sholk , Val et al.
).
Despite the challenging roots of the concept, strategy is thus de
facto an ongoing concern for progressive movements, including
degrowth. Grappling with the concept in a clearly dened manner,
we argue, can foster already existing discussions and organising, with
cautious engagement being better than shying away from the topic
due to its challenges. In working with strategy, we want to oer a
conceptualisation of it that avoids the problematic aspects we have
highlighted and is also in tune with degrowth while preserving the
important and at times challenging insights it brings.
Strategy – a thought construct and a exible mental map
We understand strategy as a thought construct that details how one
or several actors intend to bring about systemic change towards a
desired end state. When applied in practice, a strategy serves as
a exible mental map that links an analysis of the status quo to a
vision of a desirable end state by detailing dierent ways of achieving
(intermediate) goals on the journey towards that envisioned future
as well as certain means to potentially be employed along these ways
(Freedman ). Ways refer to dierent pathways through which
the transformation from the status quo to the desired end-state
may come about. ese pathways can be distinguished from one
another, among other things, by the relations they envision between
the strategising actor and other actors or between the actor and
the structures they intend to change. Means, in turn, are concrete
actions that actors may undertake when pursuing a strategy. Strategy
may encompass antagonistic and consensual processes, where actors
involved in strategising engage with adversaries or allies, anticipating
their actions and responding to the opportunities or obstacles these
create (Maney et al. ).
We are aware that, especially in progressive social movements
and organisations, strategies are not always explicitly discussed.
Instead, the ways and means pursued by an organisation in their
everyday activities always at least partly emerge organically out of
past experiences of their members and the narratives created by them
(de Moor and Wahlström ). Research that looks at strategies-as-
practice highlights the diverse and sometimes unconscious processes
out of which strategies emerge in real-world organisations (Golsorkhi
et al. ). For example, peasant-to-peasant processes can be seen as
key to La Via Campesina’s strategy for spreading peasant agroecology
(Val et al. ). Furthermore, the very participation in building
alternatives has a strategic element as “the creation of new political
structures [i]s intended to replace existing political structures”
(Maeckelbergh , ).
While we acknowledge such an understanding of strategies,
in this book we argue for thinking about strategies analytically
as well as deliberately and then applying this thinking in practice.
Conceptualising strategies as thought constructs allows us to engage in
analytical discussions about opportunities and challenges presented
by a given context, to organise ourselves internally and with potential
allies, and to evaluate dierent strategies for their ex-ante desirability
and their ex-post ecacy.
By understanding strategy as a exible mental map, in turn, we
highlight that a strategy in practice is necessarily context-specic and
dynamic. A strategy in practice, while still being a thought construct,
is always dened in relation to the circumstances of the strategising
actor. is includes their goals, their (limited) resources, how they
are situated within broader social structures and processes, as well
as what they anticipate other actors (allies and opponents) will do.
Crucially, a strategy is thereby more than a mere plan. While a plan
outlines a concrete list of steps an actor intends to take to reach a
goal, a strategy comprises a set of considerations for how one might
bring about change more generally, the details of which may later
change. Indeed, the ways, the means and even intermediate goals
foreseen in a strategy may need to be adapted as a strategy plays out
and one must react to the actions of allies and opponents and to
changing circumstances more broadly.
To add yet another layer of complexity to the discussion of strategy
as a exible mental map, strategies over time must also be able to
reect changes in the strategising actor’s understanding of their
surroundings. Indeed, how an actor analyses the status quo and the
levers and mechanisms available to enact change is never complete
and must thus be updated over time (Wright ). Strategies for
degrowth at any one point in time can only ever reect an informed
guess about how transformation may come about. Working towards
social-ecological transformation thus requires us to acknowledge
uncertainty, complexity, and possible unintended consequences
when strategising, and to create institutions for reecting on and
responding to these issues (Barca et al. ).
inking analytically and deliberately about strategy
inking analytically and deliberately about strategy, we argue,
can enhance organising and action towards social-ecological
transformation. To foster such thinking, it is necessary to
dierentiate distinct ways from means and means from ends.
Separating dierent ways from the means employed along those
ways allows dierent strategies to be sorted and grouped, and their
distinctions to be discussed analytically. e vocabulary of Erik
Olin Wright is particularly helpful for thinking of dierent waysin
which an actor may choose to work toward transformation. Wright
(, ) discerns three “modes of transformation” within anti-
capitalist movements – interstitial, ruptural and symbiotic. ese
are each accompanied by respective “strategic logics” (Wright ).
e popularity that Wright’s framework enjoys within and beyond
degrowth for thinking about dierent ways of bringing about
progressive change is one reason why we – at times also critically –
engage with it in our book, hoping to create continuity with broader
debates. Another reason for building on Wright’s framework is that
it highlights synergies between distinct modes of transformation and
thus potentially facilitates collaboration between distinct political
factions within degrowth and allied movements. We engage with
Wright’s work at greater length later in the book, by setting out a
strategic canvas that degrowthers and allies can engage with to
identify and coordinate strategic priorities and tensions between
dierent groups, and to think about how to avoid co-optation
(see Chapter ). We have also asked authors, especially in chapters
dealing with strategies in practice (Chapters to ), to deliberately
reect on strategies employed in their elds and organisations by
drawing on the analytical vocabulary of Wright or the way we have
furthered (and diverged from) it in this book.
Separating means from ends in our denition of strategy creates
space for debating about which means (and intermediate ends)
should be considered conducive to social-ecological transformation,
and which should not. is analytical process of separating means
from ends is not a common approach within degrowth, but one
which we think would be benecial. Crucially, we do not wish
to imply that the desirable end of reaching a socially just and
ecologically sustainable society justies using all possible means
available to degrowth actors. As mentioned in the previous section,
given the complexity of social change, it is impossible to foresee with
certainty which means would lead to what ends. Calling for brutal
means to achieve a peaceful end, for example, would ignore the great
uncertainty attached to whether that end will come about because
of these means. Instead, undesirable means may become ends in
themselves (Parker ). erefore, we maintain that it is vital that
the strategising process itself as well as the ways and means discussed
in degrowth strategies are guided by degrowth values like autonomy,
care, conviviality, democracy, and equity even as their applicability in
a specic context might be challenged.
Simply conating means and ends when discussing and evaluating
strategies is also problematic. Even for practices where means and
ends seem to be in concert – sometimes referred to as pregurative
strategies – this is never completely the case. For example, a local
bicycle repair cooperative engaged in pregurative organising might
still be using bicycle parts from factories that suppress organised
labour or that use metals gained in exploitative extraction processes
(see also Parker ). An open discussion about means and ends is
thus needed to argue why a particular practice might nevertheless be
considered part of a degrowth strategy.
Another reason for making a conceptual distinction between
means and ends is that conating them limits our thinking about
how social-ecological transformation can be achieved. To drive
the kind of change pregured by running a bicycle repair coop at
a systemic level, a broader set of strategic actions would be needed
–such as cooperation with other initiatives for alternative transport,
pushing for favourable regulation and redistribution, blocking
unsustainable forms of transport, and supporting international
workers’ movements (Maney et al. , Parker , drawing on
Boggs ). Analytically separating means and ends may also
help in thinking about framing and communication, which are
important elements of strategy in social movements (Smucker
, Staggenborg ). As Smucker (, –) points out,
when framed only in moral terms that reect the ends, rather
than, for example, showing how a particular action has a believable
chance of making a dierence, communication may fail to mobilise
those sympathetic to the cause but struggling to see how it can be
achieved. In other words, many strategic actions are primarily means
to a greater end and may not always already embody the structures
and processes characterising the end. ey may nevertheless be
important for driving social-ecological transformation and are thus
not to be omitted from our thinking about strategies.
Strategy through organisation
Social-ecological transformation must be informed by a multiplicity
of dierent knowledges and practices and involve many people
– most of them not self-proclaimed proponents of degrowth and
potentially not even self-proclaimed progressives (see Chapter ).
Strategies for social-ecological transformation are bottom-up and
focused on building counter-power to dominant actors who focus
on reproducing business as usual (see also Mueller ). Rather
than trying to wield power for a single vision of a coordinated
transformation, they primarily deal with dismantling existing power
relations and organising alternatives.
By including multiple actorsin the denition of strategy adopted
in this book, we foreground the organisational capacities required
for the strategising process (Staggenborg ). In other words,
the creation and execution of strategies depend on the existence of
collective actors (e.g. activist groups, social movements, economic
organisations) that engage in organising. us, a key element of
strategy is “building organisation in order to achieve major structural
changes in the political, economic and social orders” (Breines ,
). In tune with degrowth principles, organisation “needs to be able
to take forms other than hierarchical and xed” (Maeckelbergh ,
), whilst acknowledging the necessity of action on a global scale
(Parker ). is involves both “developing new social practices
and autonomous structures of authority”, like the Zapatista (Stahler-
Sholk , ), and applying movement pressure to reshape the
existing institutions that constrain the spectrum of what is possible,
whether international organisations or the state (see Chapter ). e
question of how to organise can thus be seen as both the foundation
for and a deliberate part of a successful strategy (Maney et al. ,
Parker ).
We admit that there is a risk of creating hierarchies and closures
when strategising, slipping into the problematic aspects of strategy
that we started this section with. For example, this can happen
through the emergence of “elite” groups or individual actors within
a movement, specialised in strategising, and their separation from
the rest of the movement. Such alienation could be mitigated by
continued attention being paid to degrowth values like autonomy,
care, conviviality and direct democracy in the strategising process,
reecting and acting upon any closures as they arise (Barca et al.
). Moreover, the necessity of embedding the strategising process
in specic contexts and practices involves drawing on the experiences
of members and allies already engaged in various elds of practice
(Smith et al. ). An open and analytical exchange about strategies
can thereby potentially help build coherence within dierent strands
of the movement and beyond by forming narratives and enabling
storytelling (de Moor and Wahlström ). However, the usefulness
of clearly dening and discussing strategies in fostering movement
participation and coordination rather than leading to alienation
always hinges on how these dialogues are conducted. For degrowth,
with strategic action becoming more important, good organisation
and coordination are thus key to mitigating risks of developing
distant leadership and misguided solutions.
Beyond its focus on bringing about “external transformation”, a
signicant part of the book focuses on “internal movement building”
(Maney et al. ) – in other words, the strategic coordination
among degrowth actors, and with allied movements. e term
“strategic assemblage” (see Chapter ) points to three areas for
deliberate coordination in relation to degrowth and strategy that
are discussed in this book. First, while strategic plurality is essential
for degrowth, plurality is not strategic in itself, but can become
strategic through coordinated eorts of multiple actors involved in
the degrowth movement and beyond. Explicitly denoting dierent
strategic considerations will render the plurality of approaches that
necessarily make up struggles for social-ecological transformation
more eective, by highlighting synergies and acknowledging
incompatibilities. Second, internal coordination within the
degrowth movement, and an open discussion about it, may
facilitate participation of more people in the movement, help build
relations and create shared denitions, and avoid the reproduction
of hierarchies(see Chapter ). Finally, and crucially, actors who self-
identify with degrowth only play a humble role in fostering social-
ecological transformation and are meaningful only as part of larger
joint eorts with allied movements. us, coordination of degrowth
actors with a mosaic of connected movements is needed (see Chapter
).
To sum up, thinking about strategy analytically and deliberately,
we argue, can enhance bottom-up organising and action towards
social-ecological transformation. Explicitly discussing and
categorising strategies allows us to deliberate about their desirability,
mutual compatibility, or incompatibility. Further, it enables us to
analyse their ecacy and to coordinate and communicate our vision
for how to achieve transformation with others – inside and outside
of degrowth. To be aligned with the multiplicity of degrowth,
strategies need to be dynamic and plural, based on degrowth values
and sensitive to power relations. Strategies are to be fostered through
organising and coordination, within the degrowth movement itself
and as part of larger eorts of allied groups and social movements.
e book can be seen as a collective quest for building strategies that
are in tune with the multiplicity of degrowth, and it is now time to
introduce its content.
Summary of the book
is book presents the rst comprehensive attempt at grappling
with the intersection of degrowth and strategy while confronting
the underlying challenges of such an endeavour. It scrutinises
strategy theoretically, identies key strategic directions for degrowth,
and explores strategies that are already being practised to realise a
degrowth society. Its main argument is that to bring about social-
ecological transformation, an intentional mix of strategies needs to
be collectively deliberated and critically reected on, making sure
that it is (re-)aligned with degrowth values and contributes to the
ensemble of broader eorts for social-ecological transformation.
In line with this argument, it was crucial to us that the making
of the book itself was a collective process, assembling many voices.
At the same time, we wanted the book to be carefully crafted to not
be just an edited volume on the topic of strategy, but a coherent
whole, where each contribution has its specic role and space. us,
when contacting authors for writing dierent chapters, we asked
them to address a specic sub-topic that we as the editorial team
had identied as important to cover and that we thought they could
contribute to. e dierent chapters of the book were written by
academics, activists, and practitioners from the degrowth movement
as well as allied groups and disciplines.
Part I of this volume explores the meaning of strategy for
degrowth as both a research area and an emerging international
social movement with its own agency. It presents the rst collective
eort of degrowth scholars to engage with the questions of strategy
explicitly and in-depth. e chapters within this part of the book
are in productive dialogue with each other, not shying away from
disagreement while building upon a common foundation and
charting various paths forward.
Part II provides an analysis of strategies in practice and oers
insights from various actors involved in strategies for social-
ecological transformation. First, it covers degrowth strategies
in relation to provisioning systems, focusing on food, housing,
technology, energy and mobility. Second, it addresses strategies for
re-organising economic and political systems, covering care, work
and labour, money and nance, and trade and decolonisation.
is selection is not exhaustive but rather illustrative, illuminating
strategies within concrete areas of practice.
To ensure coherence across the book, we followed three key steps.
First, we shared the terminology on strategy used within the book,
the key elements of which have been elaborated on earlier in this
chapter. Second, we dedicated one chapter of the book (Chapter )
to mapping out an analytical framework for engaging with strategy,
which builds on the helpful vocabulary of Erik Olin Wright, but
also diverges from it, in line with degrowth thinking. We then asked
the authors of Part II to engage with the framework developed in
the book, or the original terminology of Wright, in their chapters.
ird, in asking the authors to engage with the book’s vocabulary
and framework, we strived for consistency across the book whilst
allowing room for interpretation and exibility by the authors. We
hope that these steps have made it possible for multiple voices to
come together into a polyphony, making the book a coherent whole.
Part I: Strategy in degrowth research and activism
Part I consists of three sections, each dealing with a specic aspect
of degrowth and strategy. e rst section highlights the importance
of strategy for thinking about social-ecological transformation.
Chapter positions degrowth within the broader discourse on
social-ecological transformation and argues why it is important
for degrowth to discuss the issue of strategy. Chapter outlines a
framework for thinking about strategy in degrowth and other social
movements through a critical dialogue with Erik Olin Wright.
It is this framework, or the ideas of Wright directly, that we asked
authors in Part II to engage with. Chapter summarises how strategy
has been discussed in the degrowth movement and suggests a new
term to advance the discussion of strategy in degrowth – a strategic
assemblage for degrowth.
e second section focuses on degrowth as a movement. Chapter
discusses the challenges of devising a common strategy within
degrowth given its plurality, drawing on social movement studies.
Chapter provides an overview of the degrowth movement, its
history, loose organisational structure and processes, reecting on
its agency and possible strategic ways forward. Chapter situates
degrowth vis a vis other social-ecological movements; it both explores
how degrowth actors could position themselves and highlights what
the degrowth movement can learn from other movements.
e nal section in Part I highlights the diversity of how strategy
is thought about in a degrowth context. Chapter makes the case
that, to overcome current asymmetric power relations underpinning
capitalist growth, social equity needs to be a core element of
strategising for social-ecological transformation. Chapter suggests
emancipatory potential as a useful guiding criterion for degrowth
strategies. Chapter sheds light on how the state can be understood
and engaged with from a degrowth perspective and uses such a
conceptualisation to rethink how state-society relations could be
transformed. Chapter concludes the section by reconciling, on
the one hand, the insights on the diversity in degrowth, and, on the
other, the voices arguing for strategic action within the degrowth
movement.
Part II: Strategies in practice
Part II consists of two sections, where the rst section focuses on
strategies for transforming provisioning sectors and the second
focuses on strategies for economic and political reorganisation.
Each chapter in Part II is divided into two sub-chapters, starting
with an overview of degrowth strategies in an area of practice and
followed by a concrete case in that eld. e overview provides
background information on the interdependencies of degrowth and
the eld studied as well as insights on strategies that have already
been practised, discussed in the literature, or could be promising.
Following the overview, each case delves into concrete examples and
discusses their strategic challenges and potential in detail.
e two sub-chapters for each eld have dierent authors:
for most chapters, the overview is written by an author with an
academic background, while the case sub-chapter is written by an
activist or practitioner who constructively reects on a degrowth
strategy in their eld – a campaign, an action, a project and so
on – of which they have rst-hand experience. In some chapters,
academics and activists have collaborated, resulting in a single,
integrated chapter that fulls both purposes.
In Section I of Part II, Chapter reviews literature on food and
degrowth and argues that apart from building local food alternatives,
the inclusion of other strategies and learning from, for example,
the food sovereignty movement are necessary for social-ecological
transformation. e case explores the strategies implemented by
the Nyéléni food sovereignty movement at dierent administrative
scales. Chapter focuses on housing and zooms into a series of
strategies at the national and regional levels. e Berlin-based
campaign against private speculation in the housing market,
Deutsche Wohnen & CO Enteignen, is the case in focus. Chapter
challenges the role of digital technologies in our lives and questions
our social imaginary toward technology. Highlighting potential
strategies to challenge this relationship, it proposes low-tech digital
tools and platforms like Decidim as a promising pathway for action.
Chapter on energy portrays various strategies that have been used
to oppose big fossil fuel and renewable energy schemes, including
the divestment movement and the use of legal instruments. e
case looks into strategic alliances in resistance to mega-energy
projects in Chile. Finally, Chapter tackles questions of degrowth
strategy in relation to mobility. It investigates dierent approaches to
transforming the mobility sector, from technology-based scenarios
to others that question mobility itself. A Paris-based case is analysed
to assess the extent to which car-sharing may represent a satisfactory
degrowth strategy.
Moving on to Section II, Chapter introduces care as an essential
underpinning for all social relations and provisioning, presenting
strategies to strengthen care and avoid exploitative structures. e
Integral Health Centre Cecosesola in Venezuela is an example of
how care work can be organised dierently based on rethinking
its meaning and value in society. In Chapter , strategies for the
reorganisation of paid work are discussed. e chapter delves
specically into the transformation of work in the aviation sector
and explores the potential of alliances between unions and activists
as well as local institutions for bringing about transformative
change. Chapter reviews various strategies for transforming the
monetary and nancial system. e example of the Cooperative for
the Common Good in Austria points to the struggle of transforming
the nancial system from below. e section closes with Chapter
on trade and decolonisation, which illustrates that strategies in the
Global North can only be considered against the background of
colonial structures. e case presents the use of litigation to ght
fossil corporate power in Nigeria.
Conclusion
Despite the urgent need for systemic change and the many strong
voices that call for it, we see very little consequential action, while
many demands are simply being watered down by governments and
corporate actors. Even as their discussion is often rather sophisticated
– with talks about climate emergency, circular economy, and
various governance frameworks to address the multifaceted crisis –
we cannot expect change at the scale required to come from those
in power. Instead, the degrowth movement and allied groups need
to think about how to organise strategically within and across their
movements to shape the bottom-up social-ecological transformation
that would bring an equitable, ecologically sustainable and thriving
world for all.
e interrelations between theory and practice are at the core
of the book, as no theory prepares us suciently for the creativity
needed for building strategy, and strategy without theoretically
informed considerations risks being reduced to short-term objectives
without a vision. While Part I oers a nuanced and cogent view for
building transformative strategies, Part II shows how strategies are
embodied in ongoing practices that are already enacted by multiple
actors striving for social-ecological transformation.
is book oers a solid ground for thinking about strategy in
degrowth and related social movements and will inform action and
research for social-ecological transformation. We expect that this
volume – the outcome of a truly collective eort – will be of interest
to academics, activists, practitioners and anyone else striving for an
equitable and ecologically sustainable world, where everyone lives
well, not at anyone else’s expense and within planetary boundaries
(Brand et al. ). is volume addresses strategy in a way that
lives up to the multiplicity of degrowth on the one hand, and the
need for well-coordinated and ambitious action for social-ecological
transformation on the other. It points to many open questions
in relation to strategy and challenges to address by the degrowth
movement and its allies. We hope that this book will only be the
beginning of a wider debate about how to collectively build strategies
for systemic change. May many ideas and eorts that illuminate and
strengthen the how of social-ecological transformation ourish!
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Verso.
Strategy in degrowth
research and activism
e importance of strategy for
thinking about transformation
Chapter :
Radical emancipatory social-ecological
transformations: degrowth and the role of strategy
By Ulrich Brand
e contributions to this book show that the term degrowth is used
in manifold ways: For a movement or an ensemble of movements,
for a eld of research and a community of scholars, for concrete
initiatives and experiences, and – in the broadest sense – for a
vision or utopia for another society. A society – or societies – which
enable(s) freedom, justice and a “good living for all” without
destroying the bio-physical conditions of social life on earth. at
means an organisation of social life with very dierent institutions,
logics, imaginaries as well as societal and power relations, including
society-nature relations. e transformations required to create
such organisations of social life are subject to historical and current
experiences, uncertain futures, social and technological innovations,
very dierent and plural forms of knowledge. To enable a good
living for all is thereby at least partly related to planned and eective
actions. is is where the question of strategy comes in, i.e., the
question of how (see Introduction). ereby, transformative actions,
and questions of how to strategise towards them, are oriented, not
only by shared experiences, but also by new normative horizons and
visions of an alternative future. Degrowth has, so far, been strong
in proposing these new horizons and visions. It is also increasingly
oering convincing approaches to strategic thinking and action.
While it is mainly formulated against the background of experiences
in the Global North, globally, degrowth is thereby part of a plurality
of approaches, of a pluriverse (Kothari et al. ) which has the goal
1 I would like to thank the whole editorial team of the book for their fantastic work to
make this important publication possible. I am particularly indebted to the two editors
who commented several times on draft versions of this chapter, which led to important
improvements and more clarity. Of course, I take full responsibility for the content.
of fostering radical emancipatory social-ecological transformations.
In this chapter, I embed the emerging debate about degrowth
and strategy within broader discussions about social-ecological
transformations. is then allows me to provide some pointers
to issues that I perceive to be important for degrowth’s strategic
orientation process. I start o by briey introducing some major
aspects of the debate around social-ecological transformations.
I thereby suggest some conceptual and also political-strategic
distinctions between dierent types of transformations. en, I
put the degrowth perspective into conversation with this debate
and outline some ideas about the role of strategy. After some brief
considerations on “the question of the state”, which has gained
importance in degrowth debates, I conclude with reections and
open questions.
On social-ecological transformation(s): What kind?
In the last ten years, within debates around the multiple crises
we are facing – and particularly those focusing on their social-
ecological dimensions – there have been important contributions
that used the terms societal, social-ecological, sustainability or Great
transformation.
Within this debate, it is broadly acknowledged that the context
of struggles towards transformation has changed dramatically,
compared to earlier periods when discussions about sustainability
were just emerging. First, the complexity of problems, especially
concerning the causes and consequences of climate change, and
the urgency to act, are broadly acknowledged. Secondly, it is
recognised that it is not enough to manage the ecological crisis, as
suggested in mainstream sustainability debates – “something” more
profound is required. While sustainable development always carried
2 I do not use a clear-cut notion of strategies in this text. e relationship between degrowth
and strategies are (as pointed out in Chapter 3), rst, degrowth as a conictive process
and explicit strategies, second, manifold strategies that refer de facto but not explicitly to
degrowth as a process towards social-ecological transformations which also might imply,
third, the concrete utopia of a degrowth society (also see Chapter 4).
a kind of managerial core, such a perspective is questioned given the
complexity and non-linearity of challenges. irdly, the economic
and nancial crisis, as well as the related crisis of representation
and the ascent of extremist right-wing parties in many European
countries, and now the COVID- pandemic, clarify that the
ecological crisis is part of a multiple crisis; and that it needs to be
dealt with in a more comprehensive, i.e., transformative, fashion.
And nally, this crisis is global. e era of sustainable development
emerged in a time prior to globalisation where the problems and
their solutions were mainly located in the Global North; look, for
instance, at the Kyoto protocol, which required action only
from the industrialised countries. is is not any longer the case, as
the Paris Agreement from shows.
Against the background of these shifting circumstances, I see
two points of consensus in how dierent stakeholders use the term
“transformation”: e rst is as a reference to the alarming warnings,
for instance of the IPCC report from . is report calls for
“rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of
society to limit global warming to . degree Celsius” (IPCC ),
and this means overcoming the fossil-fuel dependent economy and
society. e second point of consensus, as Nalau and Handmer
() identify in a literature review, is that transformation can be
understood as a “fundamental system change” which goes beyond
incremental adaptation, even as it is precisely these incremental steps
that still predominate. It is about “a fundamental shift that questions
and challenges values and routine practices and changes prior
perspectives employed to rationalise decisions and pathways” (Nalau
and Handmer , ). In short, transformation implies non-linear
change and that there is no prioritisation of any temporal – i.e.,
short, medium or long term – or spatial scale – e.g., the national or
international.
Beyond these points of consensus, the way “transformation” is
interpreted reects dierent worldviews and approaches, interests
and estimates about potential entry and starting points (O’Brien
, Nalau and Handmer , Brand a). And, therefore,
there is also no clear-cut denition of what is meant by social-
ecological transformation(s). I understand it as an umbrella term
that constitutes a new political-epistemic terrain. e term, social-
ecological transformation(s), is not as prominent of a term as
sustainable development has been since the s. In contemporary
discourses, the more recent version of sustainable development – the
Sustainable Development Goals – similarly take prominence over the
term social-ecological transformation. Terms like the green economy
or the Green (New) Deal have probably also gained more political
attention. However, it seems that in light of the afore-mentioned
deepening of the ecological crisis, discussions about transformations
do not just serve to open a terrain for more radical and hence
adequate diagnoses of the problems we face, but also have a similar
function as sustainable development did when it rst appeared. at
is, this framing aims to put the crisis into a larger context and to
unite dierent elds of thinking and action against business-as-usual
strategies.
From my perspective, the fact that denitions of social-ecological
transformations remain vague has to do with a constitutive
tension within most uses of the term. In many contributions
to the debate, the radical diagnosis of ecological problems and
crises is accompanied by a rather incremental understanding of
transformation processes themselves. At rst sight, this is surprising
because insights into the deep-rootedness of crises should lead to
radical solutions or, at least, proposals that eectively deal with root
causes. However, the tension between radical diagnosis and rather
docile strategies has to do with an obvious implicit or even explicit
assumption that transformation processes can best be initiated
and amplied with and within the current political, economic
and cultural institutional system, dominant actors and related
rationalities. Radical diagnosis meets Realpolitik.
One could call this usage of the concept of transformation a
“new critical orthodoxy” (Brand b). Its main characteristic
is that it is a radical diagnosis of the problem, claiming to lead to
far-reaching change, while it is combined with a rather incremental
understanding of the concrete processes and steps of social change
in order to cope with the problems. e current critical orthodoxy
does not question dominant rationalities and institutions (Biesecker
and von Winterfeld ) but relies on a liberal understanding of
societies: “States” and “markets” are assumed to be given without
problematising the bureaucratic logic of the state and the capitalist
logic of the market that are intrinsically linked to the logic of
economic growth. A broader understanding of the economy
as a basis for other forms of well-being and social-ecological
transformations is not present. e new orthodoxy presupposes that
with good arguments and learning processes, all relevant actors will
gain adequate insights into the required transformation. And this
discourse also seems to have little understanding of the conict-
driven character of modern societies, of power and domination.
is is the reason why I propose the term radical emancipatory
social-ecological transformations. In order to provide a good life for all,
one must think beyond reform. e type of transformation required
is not about prioritising the change of the energy and resource base
while alleviating potential social collateral damages. Emancipatory
transformations are dierent from more technocratic, state-centred,
and green growth-oriented ones, but also from the quite dynamic
“radicalism” of right-wing forces. ey are about a very dierent
remaking of society, beyond exploitation and domination. It is radical
emancipatory social-ecological transformations – with their manifold
strategies – that degrowth seeks, and which are the topic of this book.
On degrowth
A changing context of crisis and competing ideas about what
sort of “transformation” is necessary constitute the terrain on
which degrowth strategies are formulated and pursued. From my
perspective, and despite many internal dierences (Asara et al.
, Eversberg and Schmelzer , Kallis et al. , Schmelzer
and Vetter ), the basic common denominator of degrowth
as a critical approach is that the capitalist and industrialist growth
imperative, that organises many aspects of social life, is one of the
major problems of our times and needs to be overcome – in the
Global North and in the Global South.
In other chapters of this book, a diversity of degrowth approaches
are outlined (see Chapters and ). Here, I want to highlight one
aspect that seems important to me when we think about strategies:
the importance of looking at societies as a system of power and
domination. Societies organised around the capitalist growth
imperative are based on and reinforce social relations in which life
opportunities and spaces of action, as well as assets and income,
are distributed unevenly. It guarantees economically, politically and
culturally manifold social inclusion and exclusion (Brand ). A
society liberated from growth has to tackle various forms of social
domination: class, race, gender, North–South relations, and the
domination of nature.
Degrowth is then about radical emancipatory social-ecological
transformations “by design” – not “by disaster” – because the
latter would likely imply a brutal shifting of the burden. It would
enhance inequality and would not stop destructive dynamics.
Transformations by design – and this is the starting point of strategic
thinking – is about choices and decisions, conicts and alliances,
expectations and desires, long-term thinking and action. It is about
dealing with the root causes of problems and crises, not their
symptoms, about seeing the “woods rather than the trees” (Freedman
, ix). To sum up, degrowth is a narrative or imaginary to change
social discourse, power relations, and ways of thinking, and also to
promote collective action. It is therefore also a means of thinking
about, developing and communicating strategies.
To foster social-ecological transformations in this direction needs
material and immaterial resources, the eective application of
strategies and their appropriate sequence (Freedman , ix–x). In
that sense, degrowth is an integral part of emancipatory debates,
strategies and real social change – and it takes place in highly
dynamic contexts. ose contexts are always historically concrete
and sometimes shift suddenly (e.g., in times of a pandemic).
is is why I think that an understanding of strategy as “a plan of
collective action intended to accomplish goals within a particular
context” (see Chapter ) might run the risk of focusing too much
on the relationships between formulated goals and instruments
to reach the goals and may underestimate the sometimes rapidly
changing context. Long- and mid-term strategies need to consider
contingencies and the need for adaptation to shifting situations.
Besides strategies, the spaces and organisational forms to
permanently evaluate these contexts and the actions and strategies of
other actors are important.
e importance of context and some pointers for degrowth’s
emerging debate on strategy
Strategies and strategic thinking have the goal of creating the
conditions for the mid-term transformations about which we already
have some ideas. But strategies also create the conditions for future
transformations by changing power relations, blocking devastating
economic practices, redesigning the state and public policies, and
questioning the capitalist growth imperative.
Some strategies are more oriented towards movement building (see
Chapters –). ey should remain open to contingent moments,
favourable or unfavourable change, and be adaptable. Strategies
require strategic actors, and they are also not just there but emerge,
develop, change, gain strength, become weaker, even disappear.
When we understand degrowth strategies as thought constructs
that somehow bind ends, ways and means together (see Introduction
to this volume), we should not forget that many important strategic
actions are rather defensive, in the sense that they try to block
immediate harm and further expansion of capitalism. An example
of this is when pipelines, airport expansion, coal or oil extraction or
the introduction of GMOs are contested. e “end” here may appear
very concrete, but defensive strategies are an integral part of the
creation of emancipatory horizons and concrete alternatives.
Much analytical and political trouble starts when we
consider strategies at a scale where the “object” that should
be transformed is global society and its relations to nature,
which is mediated by disastrous systems featuring powerful
actors. is refers to a transformation of complex societal
conditions, for example within the existing mobility
or food systems and related relationships of forces.
But my main point concerning strategies is this: If we focus on
strategies (and not just on actions), we need to consider them from a
relational perspective. A strategy is not a property of an organisation
and should not be reduced to eects or reached goals (Golsorkhi
et al. , ). Freeman (, xi) further argues that, in practice,
strategy is rarely an orderly movement towards goals set in advance.
Instead, the process evolves through a “series of states, each one not
quite what was anticipated or hoped for, requiring a reappraisal and
modication of the original strategy, including ultimate objectives.”
Strategies are uid and exible, “governed by the starting point and
not the end point” (Ibid.).
To emphasise dierent ways to understand social-ecological
transformations – as I did in the rst section of this chapter – is not
just a thought experiment. It mirrors dierent social and political
projects for dealing with the deepening social-ecological crisis. is
is, in a way, the playing eld in relation to which degrowth strategies
are dened.
I think that this is important because, without any doubt, the
overall project of an emancipatory social-ecological transformation
through manifold concrete transformations – where degrowth
strategies play an important role – is in opposition to many other
projects. Other actors and alliances pursue more or less liberal
projects of social-ecological transformation to cope with the multiple
crisis of capitalism. Many of them are in favour of “green growth”,
competitiveness and the role of private capital to deal with the social-
ecological crisis. e terrain of struggle for degrowth perspectives
and initiatives is structured by dominant approaches that intend
to install green capitalism under the header of social-ecological
transformations (Tanuro and Ennis , Smith , Brand and
Wissen , Chapter ). is is sometimes framed by what was
described above as a new critical orthodoxy – a more or less radical
change of the resource base of capitalism without transforming its
cultural political economy and related logics of growth and power
relations.
Other projects openly accept the humanitarian consequences of
climate change as a given – (e.g., through climate change denialism
or fatalism) – and have shifted towards defending the current mode
of living for some dened in-group – by force if necessary. is
can be called an authoritarian stabilisation of the imperial mode of
production and living (Brand and Wissen ).
Viewed against this backdrop, the debate on strategy within
degrowth is important for several reasons: First, dominant social
dynamics are not favourable: Given the increasingly intense multiple
crises and the rise of right-wing forces with strategies that are
obviously quite successful, radical emancipatory change is the top
priority of our times – and it must be quite fast given the potential
and already-occurring ecological devastation. Emancipatory forces
need to be more eective in formulating goals, thinking concrete
steps in advance and applying them, building alliances, and using
manifold material and immaterial resources eectively.
Second, degrowth as an explicit social movement is and will
remain too weak to achieve such radical changes (this weakness
might also be a reason why strategic questions have not played as
central of a role in the degrowth debate). Even the understandable
desire to strengthen it via a Degrowth International will be not
sucient. is makes questions of strategy even more important
because ghting for emancipation implies using “underdog
strategies” (Freedman , xii) in light of powerful opponents
and existing un-sustainability. Strategies for emancipatory social-
ecological transformations are about “the art of creating power”
(Ibid.) not in the sense of a “duel” or a “nal struggle”, but as a
diverse and creative process to block the destructive components
of existing social life and related interests. For this, degrowth needs
allies that may not use the term degrowth but might nevertheless
be open to its aims and strategies for emancipatory social-ecological
transformations. To put it dierently, emancipatory demands (e.g.,
to realise better social-ecological living conditions for all, to block
and shape existing power relations and dominant societal logics)
necessarily evolve in many dierent spaces and should be linked to
each other – but probably not under the header of degrowth. As an
example, anti-racist, feminist and housing struggles ght power and
domination but often do not deal with ecological issues. But they are
key for emancipatory social-ecological transformations (see Chapter
).
is is why I prefer to speak of social-ecological transformations
rather than of degrowth transformation(s) because it is broader.
An actor such as Greenpeace constantly formulates strategies but
might not refer explicitly to degrowth, even if it may play a role
in the transformation to a degrowth society. Similarly, in many
trade unions, uneasiness with the capitalist or, at least, neoliberal
growth imperative and discussions about alternative models of well-
being might gain prominence. But given that workers and trade
unions have historically experienced growth as a precondition of
distributional policies, the term “degrowth” itself is not used by most
trade unions.
ird, and relatedly, degrowth is not just a question of actors
and alliances (even though this is important) but also of changing
institutions – or more explicitly, organisations – and practices
of public, political, economic and cultural organisations, private
rms and everyday working and living practices of people that
are currently in many respects destructive. In that sense, besides
changing the socio-political conditions and power relations (usually
the aim of social movements and a condition for this is a collective
identity) social-ecological transformations imply transforming
everyday subjectivities and imaginaries, and very dierent forms of
material reproduction (the “economy”). It is also about learning and
education, changing lifestyles and practices (which are often only
indirectly the object of strategies), not being afraid to make mistakes,
and being open to things that we cannot yet imagine. Degrowth
strategies need to be “translated” into dominant institutional
paradigms, through concrete micro-strategies and struggles. For
instance, to shift the growth dynamics of a state bureaucracy (be it a
ministry, a university or a public enterprise) also requires the action
of many people and groups within the apparatus. What became clear
at the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference: Strategies for Social-ecological
Transformation (and even before) is that radical social-ecological
transformations should go beyond being a niche movement while
still avoiding the replication of a form of statism. Emancipatory
transformations need to take place in many spheres.
Fourth, given existing complexities and uncertainties, I see
degrowth as an important approach, but I would hesitate to look for
an “overarching degrowth strategy” as a more or less coherent meta-
vision. I think that strategies and their coordination are of utmost
importance, but not as “grand strategies”, nor should we try to
coordinate all or most of them. Moreover, from my perspective, it
is not necessary – and it does even not make sense – to prioritise
particular strategies (activism or research or nowtopias; and this
does not go hand in hand with “strategic indeterminance” as
Herbert et al. argue). Radical social change needs good and
emancipatory strategising in all spheres. In light of the required
radical transformation processes, eorts and dynamics to promote
them must be massively enhanced. e question of priorities might
come up when, for instance, personal or nancial resources are
scarce, and decisions must be taken (here some evaluation criteria
might help; see Chapter ). But it cannot be answered in an abstract
sense beforehand.
Finally, the role of degrowth research in the process of building,
contestation, and implementation of strategies is manifold. It
helps to get a better understanding of contexts, to make implicit
ontological assumptions explicit and discussable. ose assumptions
are highly relevant for strategy-building. Research can systematise
historical experiences, or experiences in other regions or terrains of
conict (i.e., comparative perspectives), which might help sharpen
strategies. It can look through in-depth case studies at successful or
failed strategies – those that became part of centrist compromises.
e “question of the state”
We can learn from debates on social-ecological transformation(s)
that the massive changes that are envisioned will be highly conictive
and confronted by the enormous powers and interests of those who
benet from the status quo. is is why the “question of the state” is
of utmost importance. e contribution by Max Koch (Chapter )
later in this book will deal at greater length with this issue (see also
Chapter ). But let me just briey explain why I perceive this topic
to be very important.
Degrowth emerged in the last decades as a movement-based
approach or, as it is sometimes said, as “activist-led science” and
often focuses on concrete alternatives in niches and on the everyday
level (what Erik Olin Wright calls interstitial strategies). Conversely,
by and large in degrowth research, little work has been done with
respect to the state. However, this is changing (see D’Alisa and
Kallis , Koch ) and some contributions in this book are
an expression of the increasing attention paid to the state. e state
is not any longer per se seen as a barrier to emancipatory social-
ecological transformations – which it still is in many respects.
Certainly, the actually-existing state has to be theorised critically
as part of the dominant capitalist growth regime, which enacts class-
based, gendered and racialised as well as global forms of domination
and exploitation. And yet, in the tradition of critical state theory, the
state can also be understood as an asymmetric terrain of struggles
and as a system that can possibly block powerful interests and
give emancipatory demands and achievements certain durability
(Poulantzas , Jessop , Bretthauer et al. , Lang and
Brand ): Leaving the oil in the soil, stopping the operation of
nuclear power plants and the use of GMOs, enabling the expansion
of sustainable public transport and democratic energy transitions,
creating an education system that is part of the transformations
we are talking about, introducing a tax system that supports them,
and so on. is can be promoted by creating binding rules, limiting
destructive dynamics driven by existing power structures, and
dedicating resources to promote social-ecological processes, such
as the establishing of social-ecological provisioning systems and
infrastructures that are not guided by prot.
is implies that the very structure of the capitalist, imperial,
patriarchal and racist state needs to be entirely transformed and
that this struggle will also happen within the state. But this will
only happen in conjuncture with social movements, conscious and
engaged people, a critical public and progressive businesses. An
anarchist position would argue that the state needs to be abolished.
I agree that this applies to the capitalist state, but I think that some
form of apparatuses to administer things, to give social life certain
rules and a certain level of stability will remain important. is is
particularly the case if we also consider the global scale, i.e., the
need for some kind of democratic and transparent mechanisms of
coordination. In that sense, in a social-ecologically transformed
society, a “state” also remains important as a label for a system that is
an important part of emancipatory social-ecological transformations
and – as a result of social struggles – secures them.
We have seen in the current COVID- pandemic, that the state
is the crisis manager that secures certain, though unequal, forms of
public interest and coherence that private capital cannot do and is
not willing to do. But probably the most important argument for
making use of the state is the need for massive investment, which
in large parts will be public (or private investment with strong rules)
and with strong involvement of the wage earners and the public
(see, for example, Lehndor on the historical New Deal, and
proposals in Riexinger et al. ). Many people who see the deep
problems and might be willing to actively contribute or have at least
passively accepted the need for far-reaching changes expect a form of
leadership from the state – at least in many countries of the Global
North where we still have the experience that the state does not act
exclusively in favour of the oligarchy and transnational capital.
In that sense, a transformed state that provides structure, personnel
and policies is necessarily part of changing societal power relations
and orientations sought by a successful broad movement towards
social-ecological transformations. e debate about degrowth’s
strategic orientation thus needs a strategy for the state.
Conclusion
It is remarkable how social-ecological transformation processes
towards an emancipated society always took and still take place in
many spheres. is book gives an excellent overview of ongoing
and potential processes of change in various areas, which should
be amplied. Some transformative activities are formulated and
realised under the header of degrowth, others refer more implicitly
to degrowth ideas. In that sense, degrowth is a “vantage point” for
a mosaic of alternatives (Chapter ) – but, as I argued, in my view
degrowth even goes beyond social movements. Social-ecological
transformations are urgently needed in many spheres where
destructive growth dynamics, related interests, and power relations
still prevail. erefore, a crucial challenge is that those alternatives
do not remain in niches (which are important enough) but can be
universalised at a global macro scale, i.e., can be lived in principle
by all people and not at the cost of destroying the very biophysical
conditions of social life on earth. To become more eective in
bringing about societal change, strategies are needed.
Some authors fear that degrowth strategies might run the danger
of not being anti-capitalist enough and contributing to taming
capitalism, i.e., to soften its worst social and ecological impacts or
to promote its greening (see Chapter ). However, and despite the
fact that we do not like it, if we consider the existing capitalist,
patriarchal, racist and imperial context and related power relations,
it is very likely that, for some time, anti-capitalist strategies will – not
as their formulated aims but in fact – contribute to such a taming.
Indeed, one core contention of mine in this chapter has been
that transformations need to take place today, under existing
capitalist conditions and in the context of competing projects and
visions. I argued in this chapter in favour of thinking strategies in a
relational manner, particularly during periods of crisis and through
policies implemented during those periods. e project of greening
capitalism as well as authoritarian strategies to stabilise it might gain
force and therefore shape degrowth strategies.
Meanwhile, there is a tension in the fact that some demands and
initiatives need to be radical (to change the existing imaginaries
and power relations) and other demands and initiatives should seek
to mobilise the largest possible amount of people – for example,
demands should be related to people’s material interests (e.g., stop
rising rents). Such a “strategic division of labour” within particular
movements and among various actors might be useful: some parts
are more radical and others more reformist, but they are conscious of
this necessary division of labour.
I have also highlighted that alliances and engagement with
institutions should not be seen from a tactical perspective (“to
gain power for our project which we more or less know”) but as a
necessary condition of such a broad change. Many other actors
and changes within organisations do not run under the header of
degrowth yet might share many of its aims. Explicit degrowth actors
should engage with others and build alliances.
e strength of the degrowth perspective is that it insists on the
necessity to have a general idea of a society that enables a good
living for all. ere are important principles, such as collectively
dened forms of self-limitation (Kallis , Muraca , Brand et
al. ), but we do not know a clear “end” to our struggles beyond
visions that manifest the positive experiences today (Konzeptwerk
Neue Ökonomie ). What might be needed instead is an overall
dispositif or orientation of emancipation, which, even now, might
not have a name – a social atmosphere of acting and ghting, of
saying “no” and of starting something radically dierent and with
emancipatory principles, purposes and strategies.
But there are many open questions: How do we mobilise people
to engage in political organisations and social movements, but also,
how do we rethink and shape their everyday practices? Which roles
do workers play and other progressive factions within capitalism?
When it comes to the creation of collective identities or concrete
campaigns, what is the role of (social) media?
We are also talking about degrowth research as a scientic practice.
What kind of research (and development) is needed, which role
will technologies and technological knowledge play? How do
we change existing and powerful “sociotechnical imaginaries”?
How do we change the scientic and economic core of current
(largely unsustainable) transformation processes? What kinds of
knowledge and qualications do we need in such a society? What
role will science and experts play? What is the feasibility of dierent
proposals and means for transformations? What is the role of social-
ecological experimentation, and that of the “pioneers of change”,
such as inventors, companies, political activists, consumers, and
non-governmental organisations – in various elds such as urban
development, energy, and agriculture?
So many questions, and many more. I hope that this chapter will
serve its purpose, i.e., to be a kind of extended introduction to a
book in which many of these questions are dealt with and some even
tentatively or concretely answered.
But most answers to those pressing questions will not be given
3 Jasano and Kim (2015, 19) dene sociotechnical imaginaries as “collectively held,
institutionally stabilised and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated
by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and
supportive of, advances in science and technology.”
in this book but in the manifold social practices that foster radical
emancipatory social-ecological transformations. eoretical and
conceptual work, as well as the sharing and systematisation of
experiences in empirically oriented research, can help to reect on
those practices and their often dicult and contradictory realisation.
But, of course, it cannot replace them.
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Chapter :
A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright
By Ekaterina Chertkovskaya
Introduction
In order to build strategies for social-ecological transformation,
we need to think about them analytically, in relation to the goals
of concrete organisations and social movements we are part of. In
this chapter, I set out a strategic canvas that degrowthers and allies
can engage with, in order to identify priorities, tensions, and think
about how to avoid co-optation in building their strategies. How
are you pursuing social-ecological transformation? What kind of
strategy would help you in doing this? What are its potentials, and
limitations? How can you keep developing your strategy to amplify
collective eorts for social-ecological transformation? ese are some
of the questions that this chapter helps to think about.
In what follows I will argue that degrowth strategies for social-
ecological transformation (see Chapter ) need to combine several
strategic approaches, reecting the plurality of degrowth as a
movement. To support the myriad of bottom-up alternatives that
are already out there, degrowth actors should put a special emphasis
on strategies that build power outside of the capitalist system and
be very cautious of those which merely seek to tame capitalism.
At the same time, the degrowth movement should also integrate
the strategic logic of overthrowing capitalism altogether. Concrete
initiatives would benet from being more focused when strategising,
whilst critically reecting on the choices made. is argument comes
from a dialogue with the work of the late Erik Olin Wright. I build
on his helpful analytical vocabulary on transformation and strategy
but diverge from the strategic conguration he calls for, primarily by
seeing ruptures from the capitalist system as an important direction
for pursuing transformation.
e chapter will proceed as follows. First, I introduce three modes
of transformation. Second, I outline the strategic logics associated
with each of them. I engage with Wright in both sections, in relation
to degrowth, furthering his analytical framework and showing where
I diverge from his argument. I then suggest how the strategic canvas
shaped through this critical dialogue can help grassroots groups to
think about their strategies.
Modes of transformation
Wright (, ) identied three modes of transformation:
ruptural, interstitial and symbiotic.
Ruptural transformations seek
a direct confrontation or break with existing institutions and
social structures. Interstitial transformations involve building new
forms of social empowerment on the margins of capitalist society,
usually outside of spaces dominated by those in power. Symbiotic
transformations, in turn, are aimed at changing the existing
institutions, and growing power within the current system so as to
ultimately transform it. For Wright, these modes of transformation
are closely associated with the revolutionary socialist, anarchist and
social democratic traditions respectively. Using a game metaphor,
he connects symbiotic transformations to changing the rules of the
game, interstitial transformations to particular moves in the game,
and ruptural transformations to changing the game itself (Wright
).
When we talk about degrowth, we are talking about social-
ecological transformation, i.e., a transformation that aims to bring
about two entangled outcomes – ecological sustainability and
4 Wright himself used dierent vocabularies to describe ruptural/interstitial/symbiotic
transformations, such as “logics of transformation” (Wright 2019) or “strategies” (Wright
2009). In this book, when referring to Wright’s work, we in the editorial team have
opted for yet another term he used – “modes of transformation.” It helps to describe how
transformations happen, but does not equate them to strategies. Rather, particular and
distinct “strategic logics” are needed to foster each mode of transformation.
social equity (see Chapters and ). is is something to keep
in mind when thinking about the modes of transformation and
accompanying strategic logics. Let me unpack how each of these
modes of transformation connects to degrowth in more detail.
e interstitial transformation is crucial for degrowth as a
movement and might be seen as its basis. Indeed, degrowth is
about resistance to the capitalist and growth-centric system, and
building directly democratic bottom-up alternatives is one of the
key principles for the politics of degrowth (Asara et al. ). is
is also where many movements that degrowth connects to and can
learn from are located (see Chapter ). Climate and environmental
justice movements, for example, express frustration with inaction
on climate change or ght against the harmful industrial expansion.
As such, these movements are locally embedded and horizontally
organised interstices opposed to the business-as-usual approach that
puts growth and capital accumulation rst. e organising practices
we consider degrowthian – which work for open relocalisation and
repoliticisation, such as cooperatives and commoning – operate
within the interstitial mode, too. Renewable energy cooperatives, for
instance, oer a community-driven approach to producing energy.
Democratically run and serving the needs of a community, they are
interstices between the spaces occupied by fossil energy or destructive
ways to bring in renewables.
Multiple interstitial actors are already engaged in social-ecological
transformation and can be said to be paving the way for rupture
from capitalism (Wright ). However, they have little capacity to
fully address the problems they raise, such as climate change; while
the alternatives they embody are on the margins of the economy,
often dismissed as “niche” or “unscaleable”. Continuing growth
and capital accumulation by all means, in turn, are supported by
powerful agents such as corporations and governments, and the
institutional settings created by them.
In view of this, the symbiotic transformation becomes important.
Whether we want it or not, this is something we as a degrowth
movement have to engage with in order to expand the spaces for
alternatives, limit ecologically and socially harmful activities, and
change the very systems that shape social institutions. Degrowth, as a
movement, has been consistent in arguing for systemic change from
below whilst making use of available governance and institutional
mechanisms. Symbiotic transformation has already been agged
as something to engage with for degrowth, complementing and
supporting interstitial transformation (e.g., D’Alisa ). e state
and its institutions have been identied as key spaces through which
symbiotic transformation in line with degrowth can be pursued
(see Chapter ). is can be done, for example, by attempting to
inuence policies and practices at dierent levels of governance (e.g.,
municipal, national, supranational).
To this end, various degrowth policy proposals have been
formulated (e.g., Kallis , Buch-Hansen and Koch ), and
degrowthers have been part of collective calls to reorient policies
away from growth. For instance, in a letter co-signed by many
degrowth scholars, academics called on the European Union,
its institutions and member states to reorient themselves away from
the logic of growth towards the aims of ecological sustainability
and well-being (see the Guardian ). While this call fell on
deaf ears, continuing eorts towards symbiotic transformation is
important to transform the system from within. However, due to
engagement with powerful actors and on terrains shaped by them,
there is also a risk of critical voices being co-opted. Even if symbiotic
transformation pushes the change of institutional logics, corporate
actors could still remain powerful in shaping the new agenda,
watering down the radical demands.
e role of the ruptural transformation has so far not been engaged
with explicitly in the work on degrowth. is is in line with Wright
himself (, ), who analytically describes what this mode of
transformation entails, but is sceptical of it. Wright refers to rupture
as a complete and sharp overhaul of the capitalist system, and as a
direct attack on the state. According to him, the twentieth-century
examples of revolutionary seizures of power did not result in truly
democratic, egalitarian and emancipatory alternatives to capitalism,
which makes system-level rupture implausible for overcoming
capitalism (Wright , ). While ruptures are to be cautious
about, making sure that the means are in line with the ends, I would
not dismiss rupture as a mode of transformation. Instead, I suggest
recognising dierent scales at which ruptures can take place – so that
they refer not only to system-level break of nation-states, but also to
small-scale and temporary overhauls of capitalism. Wright (,
) acknowledged the possibility of reading ruptures in this way
rather than as totalising and concerning the whole system, though
without elaborating on it further.
Understanding of ruptures as small-scale and temporary, I
argue, opens an important direction for pursuing social-ecological
transformation. An act of disobedience like blocking a coal mine
– something that is endorsed by degrowthers – can be seen as an
example of a temporary rupture that empowers and encourages
other forms of action. It includes resistance, too, but goes beyond
it by disrupting, even if only temporarily, the rhythm of extractive
capitalism. Another concrete example of rupture consists of workers
overtaking a factory and converting it into a cooperative, as has
been the case in the occupied factories in Argentina (e.g., Atzeni
and Ghigliani, ). Such ruptures can be used to support and
stimulate interstitial and symbiotic modes of transformation, and
possibly create momentum for transformative change.
e three modes of transformation, as the illustrations in this
section already demonstrate, are not mutually exclusive. For
example, a network of small-scale renewable energy cooperatives can
act politically by articulating and calling for the kinds of changes it
wants to see in policies, thus combining interstitial and symbiotic
transformation. Or, an occupation of a space can combine a rupture
from business-as-usual with the enactment of interstitial alternatives
(Aitchison ). us, these modes of transformation are not only
compatible, but the dierent knots that are created when their
entanglements are acted on are also key for pursuing social-ecological
transformation (see Chapter ).
Having connected the three modes of transformation, as identied
by Wright, to degrowth, I next argue that degrowth, as a movement,
needs to engage with all of them; with interstitial transformation
at the core of degrowth practice, symbiotic transformation helping
to expand the horizons for radical possibilities, and temporal and
localised ruptures enabling radical change by taking power. Care needs
to be taken that symbiotic transformations are not co-opted, and that
ruptures are pursued cautiously, aligning the means with the ends.
Strategic logics
In his last book, Wright () connected the three modes of
transformation to specic anti-capitalist strategic logics, aimed at
either neutralising harms or transcending structures: resisting and
escaping; taming and dismantling; and smashing. In order to visualise
the potential of interstitial transformations and the dierent ways
in which ruptural transformations can happen, I complement these
with two additional categories – building alternatives and halting. By
introducing each strategic logic and connecting it to degrowth, in
this section, I set out a strategic canvas that gives a lens for thinking
about how to act strategically (see Table .). It is important to keep
in mind that degrowth is not only anti-capitalist, but also anti-
productivist, which will have implications for building strategies.
Strategic
logics
Modes of
transformation
Reducing harms Transcending structures
Interstitial
transformations
involve building
new forms of social
empowerment on the
margins of capitalist
society, usually outside
of spaces dominated by
those in power.
Resisting
E.g. a climate justice
demonstration
Escaping / Building alternatives
E.g. running an ecovillage without
broader political engagement /
building a network with others
Symbiotic
transformations
are aimed at changing
existing institutional
forms and deepening
popular social
empowerment within
the current system so as
to ultimately transform
it.
Taming
E.g. a policy that establishes
absolute caps on national CO
emissions
Dismantling
E.g. a policy that turns big companies
into cooperatives in the long-term
Ruptural
transformations
seek a sharp
confrontation or
break with existing
institutions and social
structures (these can be
short-term or done in a
particular place).
Halting
E.g. a disobedience action
Smashing
E.g. a factory occupation by workers
Table 2.1. A strategic canvas for degrowth (building on but diverging from
Wright 2019, 122, 124)
Resisting, escaping and building alternatives
Resisting and escaping are, for Wright (), the strategic
logics of interstitial transformation. Resisting is about raising a
particular problem in one way or the other and trying to bring it
to the attention of decision-makers, employers, organisations, or
the broader public. Climate demonstrations can be seen as in tune
with the strategic logic of resisting. While undoubtedly important,
resisting does not in itself transcend structures and risks staying
with the diagnosis of the problem without making the next step
towards transformation (Herbert ). However, resistance, say,
in environmental justice movements, can also create spaces for
reection on the meaning of a particular protest for the groups
mobilising around it, thus going beyond just reducing harms
(Akbulut et al. , Singh ).
Escaping, in turn, is the strategic logic of interstitial
transformation that transcends structures. Here Wright ()
distinguishes between escaping as an individualistic choice – often
based on prior privileges and the initiatives that escape capitalism for
more collective and egalitarian living. It is only the latter that is part
of his strategic logic of anti-capitalism, with intentional communities
and cooperatives being possible examples. For him, the strategic
logic of escaping “typically involves avoiding political engagement
and certainly collectively organised eorts at changing the world”
(Ibid., ). In other words, while giving inspiring examples of
living dierently, initiatives that embrace this logic may be focused
primarily on running their own community or organisation, while
distancing themselves from wider collective action for change.
While I agree with Wright that simply escaping capitalism is
not enough for bringing about transformation, I nd labelling all
interstitial eorts that transcend capitalist structures as only escaping
capitalism problematic, as this downplays their transformative
potential. Indeed, Wright acknowledges that interstitial initiatives
can be building blocks of an alternative society, and it is this point
that I would like to push further. By introducing the strategic logic
of building alternatives, I argue that interstitial alternatives can go
beyond escaping capitalism or the economy (see Fournier ),
into actively and collectively building power outside of the capitalist
system. For example, workers’ collectives or community initiatives,
apart from setting an example by their own organisations, can be
building relations and networks with other like-minded groups,
and supporting them in various ways (e.g., Kokkinidis ;
Sekulova et al. ). e strategic logic of building alternatives
denotes politicised engagement within and beyond a particular
alternative and can be seen as key for degrowth. e distinction
between escaping and building alternatives also suggests strategic
directions for degrowth as a movement, pointing to the importance
of encouraging and creating spaces for the politicisation and
engagement of those who are already following the strategic logic of
escaping.
Taming and dismantling
Taming and dismantling are the strategic logics that are part
of a symbiotic transformation. Both are arguably needed for
transformation and can be mutually reinforcing. e reduction
of working hours – a policy proposal that is often discussed in
degrowth – can be seen as an example of taming. It would liberate
the time from work, without immediately changing this work
itself, nor how it is organised and controlled. However, the time
released can be channelled towards activities aimed at interstitial
transformation, and possibly towards demanding actions that would
support them, helping to dismantle the current system. Without
taming, dismantling might not be enough. For example, dismantling
practices, such as supporting cooperatives or locally anchored
organisations institutionally, may be a drop in the ocean when
powerful corporations are not tamed and existing institutions are
still oriented towards growth. us, policy proposals such as those
discussed within degrowth (e.g., Kallis ) or allied proposals like
the Green New Deal for Europe (GNDE ) combine taming and
dismantling. However, the balance between these strategic logic is
something we as the degrowth movement should be careful about,
making dismantling rather than taming key to our eorts. In other
words, it is important that taming does not become a less radical
compromise in the struggle for transformation.
e distinction between taming and dismantling is helpful to
analytically discern how symbiotic transformation can be pursued, as
well as to identify where the risk of co-optation can emerge when
doing this. While dismantling without taming can be insucient
to bring about social-ecological transformation, it is possible to
imagine taming being pursued without leading to dismantling, thus
co-opting the eorts for symbiotic transformation. For example, in
the socialist movements of the twentieth century, the more radical
demands were often overtaken by those just taming capitalism.
Wright (, ) gives an example of Sweden in the early s,
where the left wing of social democrats wanted to put forward a
policy that would enable labour unions to become the majority
share owners of Swedish corporations in the long-term, which
never happened in the end. us, the strategic logic of dismantling
should be seen as key, with a bold vision for policies and alternative
institutions that we would like to see. Taming, in turn, should be
used to support and further argue for dismantling. For instance, in
times of crisis like the COVID- pandemic, the strategic logic of
taming would consist of arguing for connecting rescue packages for
companies to their future environmental performance. Adopting
the strategic logic of dismantling would consist of demanding the
kinds of changes that would alter the power relations in society, like
support for workers to turn bankrupt companies into collective and
not-for-prot ownership models such as cooperatives.
Smashing and halting
e strategic logic of smashing capitalism – associated with
ruptural transformation – is not part of Wright’s () vision
for how to overcome capitalism. However, waiting for symbiotic
transformation to bring the legislation and institutional changes
that would support the transition of power from capital might
mean that such transformation would never materialise, as was
the case with the example from Sweden. Or, there would be no
pioneering examples of occupied factories today had the workers
not activated the strategic logic of smashing and organised to take
power. Such ruptural transformations enacted by the workers
in the case of factory occupations have allowed for something
dierent than what is done by alternatives operating within
interstitial transformation:overtaking a space, sometimes huge, with
infrastructure that can be used and repurposing this space through
collective deliberation. Without rupture, the workers would most
likely not have had sucient resources to get hold of and equip such
a site in the rst place.
Once the strategic logic of smashing capitalism has resulted in
a ruptural transformation and a space has been repurposed, it can
become a building block for interstitial transformation, enacting
the strategic logic of building alternatives. For example, occupying
in an urban landscape – whether a house or a plot of land – as
done by squatters (see e.g., Cattaneo and Gavaldá ), enables
its reclamation from capital, whilst also opening the possibility of
converting the occupied space into a commons. Small-scale ruptures
can encourage others in similar situations to take power in the spaces
where they operate. Moreover, having such examples in place and
demanding their recognition can ultimately push for symbiotic
transformation towards cooperativisation and commoning. Despite
such potentialities, it is important to be aware that actions within
the strategic logic of smashing can also be criminalised, punished or
delegitimised by authorities.
e understanding of ruptures as small-scale and temporal
adopted in this chapter means acting towards ruptural
transformations does not necessarily lead to transcending structures,
but can also be about reducing harms. is is why I introduce
the strategic logic of halting capitalism, i.e., stopping destructive
activities, even if for a short time, aiming to break the rhythms of
capitalism, productivism and extractivism. An act of disobedience
like blocking a coal mine can be said to be following the strategic
logic of halting. It manifests a sharp confrontation with existing
structures, while not transcending them. Actions within this strategic
logic are in tune with degrowth (D’Alisa et al. ) and movements
close to it, such as the climate justice movement. An occupation of a
university to protest neoliberalisation is another example (Aitchison
). While being a temporary act and likely not leading to a
longer-term occupation, it aims to halt unjust actions. e strategic
logics within ruptural transformation are most likely to be enacted
in particular contexts when certain tipping points are crossed – for
example, when destructive expansion continues despite the severity
of climate change, when workers are not paid by their bankrupt
companies, or when common people have to deal with austerity
measures as a result of problems they had not created.
A degrowth strategy needs to combine several strategic approaches,
reecting the plurality of degrowth as a movement. First and
foremost, it needs to support the myriad of interstitial alternatives
that are not only resisting and escaping the logic of growth and
capitalism, but are already building alternatives in the present. To
do this, it should put a special emphasis on the strategic logic of
dismantling but be very cautious about taming when pursuing
symbiotic transformation. Furthermore, degrowth as a movement
should integrate the strategic logics of halting and smashing
capitalism, by disturbing the rhythms of business-as-usual, and by
daring to take power when it is possible to do so. Pursuing ruptural
transformation is particularly important and more likely to be
ethically justied in times of capitalist crisis (Bond ), when the
absurdity and violence to keep the current system going become
more evident, and when cracks in this system may open spaces for
expanding alternatives.
A strategic canvas for degrowth and how to take it forward
e discussion of the modes of transformation and strategic
logics elaborated by Erik Olin Wright (, ) and further
developed in this chapter oers a comprehensive strategic canvas that
degrowthers and allied movements can relate to (see Table .). So
far, I have argued for degrowth as a movement – characterised by a
multiplicity of actors and voices (see Chapters and , see also Barca
et al. and Paulson ) – to embrace the plurality of modes of
transformation and strategic logics oered by this canvas, emphasising
where priorities lie and where it is important to be cautious.
Specic organisations that are part of or connected to degrowth,
however, can be more focused on locating themselves on this
strategic canvas. If you are an environmental organisation that calls
for systemic change while working close to the institutions of the
European Union, symbiotic transformation may be your priority. For
example, you can be aiming at reshaping the EU politics away from
growth through impactful reports and by shaping discussion in the
EU spaces, drawing on and helping to render visible the grassroots
voices calling for social-ecological transformation, as well as
promoting the policy agenda that would make dismantling possible.
If you are a grassroots organisation, say, running a cooperative in
an urban space, pursuing interstitial transformation via building
alternatives might be key to your strategy. Depending on the
context, you may decide whether you want to also pursue symbiotic
transformation. For example, if operating in a municipality
sympathetic to your goals, you might want to nd ways to push for
policy changes that would help alternatives like yours to ourish.
Or, if operating in a hostile environment or under an oppressive
political regime, you may decide to focus on building alternatives
parallel to existing institutions and get engaged in building counter-
institutions with allied groups. And yet another example – if you are
an environmental justice group seeing a forest at the risk of being
cut for industrial expansion, engaging in the strategic logic of halting
might feel like the only right thing to do, out of which longer-term
ruptures and building of alternatives may also emerge.
Having identied your terrain within this strategic canvas, you
can keep thinking deeper about your strategies, putting them
into the context you operate in, in relation to your goals, and the
broader aspirations of social-ecological transformation. While there
is an ongoing multidimensional crisis (Brand and Wissen ), and
degrowth presents an alternative political project, there is so far little
public support of it and no unity of dierent political forces calling
for social-ecological transformation, which prevents a paradigm
shift from happening (Buch-Hansen ). us, when crafting
your strategy, you might go in the direction of building up popular
support for degrowth, or into building alliances with other politically
engaged actors. e primary purpose of some groups might be
precisely to help forge these alliances and to connect and coordinate
dierent modes of transformation within the larger movement.
As an actor within the degrowth movement, you may need to
keep thinking about how you relate to institutions of the state, and
the potential to push them from the bottom-up (see Chapter ).
Importantly, acting for social-ecological transformation, including
devising your strategies, is not something static that is decided
on once and for all. It is a process to keep engaging in, evaluating
(see Chapter ), and amending. Finally, in acting for change and
strategically, it is important to stay true to degrowth principles, its
spirit and multiplicity. To do this involves a particular approach:
critically reecting on actions for alternatives, being alert to possible
closures and co-optations that might arise in the process, and being
ready to address them while also nding inspiration and knowledge
in dierent spaces – which has been articulated as nomadic
utopianism (Barca et al. ).
To conclude, I hope that this chapter can help both degrowth and
allied movements, as well as dierent grassroots groups, to think
analytically about the mode(s) of transformation they pursue, and
which strategic logics to mobilise. Many questions about the how of
building and enacting these strategies remain, which this book will
help you to think through, via theoretical reections in Part I and
concrete examples from dierent spheres of life in Part II.
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Verso.
Chapter :
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far
By Nathan Barlow
5
As I write this chapter, one of the biggest developments in the debate
on strategy within degrowth is happening: this book! In this chapter,
I will attempt to summarise what has been said thus far on the topic
of degrowth and strategy. Notably, this book marks an important
step in bringing forward the discussion about how to achieve social-
ecological transformation. My task will be to provide the reader with
some background context underlying these discussions.
us far, advocates of degrowth have focused predominantly on
the what and why questions of social-ecological transformation.
By this, I mean degrowth proponents have developed a nuanced
critique of why the current political-economic system is failing
in myriad social and ecological ways, as well as concrete utopias
and visions of what a dierent society could look like. Research,
communication and public mobilisation around these questions have
elevated degrowth to becoming one prominent critique in academia
of the current political-economic system, which is an important
and impressive feat. Degrowth is also increasingly mentioned
in the mainstream media, albeit not always in the most honest or
favourable way (Pringle ). Additionally, the degrowth vision of
an alternative way to organise society, structure the economy, and re-
embed human activities within ecological boundaries in a convivial
5 I am highly appreciative for the insights of Joe Herbert who I have worked together with
on the topic of strategy for the last few years, and he provided invaluable comments on
this chapter. Additionally, many informal conversations amongst the editorial team of
this book as well as the web team of degrowth.info were of immense inspiration. My
supervisor Andreas Novy also contributed to developing my perspective of the importance
of thinking seriously about the how of transformation, and some of degrowth’s decits in
this regard. Lastly, one shortcoming of this chapter is the focus on text and discussion in
English, and overlooks debates on strategy in degrowth in languages other than English –
like those in the journal Entropia – a point highlighted by Federico Demaria.
and equitable way has been inspiring for many in a moment when
few political projects dare to imagine another world (Herbert ).
Central to this project is the need to overcome various institutions
of capitalist society and the dynamics they create, including growth,
prot maximisation, neoimperialism, extractivism, productivism,
patriarchy, inequality and consumerism. Given these ambitions,
the how-question is a crucial and long under-considered aspect
(Demaria , Kallis ). e degrowth movement has yet to
provide a detailed and nuanced articulation of how to get from our
current destructive mode of living to a radically changed society,
an important yet challenging task. In the last few years, there have
been many exciting developments within the degrowth discourse
on the topic of strategy. Specically, there has been work done to
better understand pathways and barriers to transformation while
considering important questions such as those of process, political
action, plurality, openness and decision-making in the face of
complexity.
is chapter will rstly show some of the dierent ways strategy
has been conceptualised in relation to degrowth, which will capture
the diversity of its usage and the implications this has. Secondly, I
will sketch the evolution of the degrowth movement’s consideration
of strategy, to capture the ow and development of ideas, showing
how strategy has always been a present topic in degrowth debates,
but is now becoming one of increasing importance. In particular, I
will highlight the work of Erik Olin Wright, the question of the state
and contending theories of change. Finally, the chapter concludes
with a suggestion, of a promising next step in the discussion. I
adhere in this chapter to the denition of “strategy” developed by
the editorial team of this book, which was created when putting the
book together to clarify how we collectively understood “strategy.”
at denition can be found in full in the book’s introduction. is
brings us to the rst central question of degrowth’s discussion of
strategy – what is strategy and how does it relate to degrowth?
Is degrowth a strategy, a goal or a quality?
One challenge for providing an overview of the debate about
strategy within the degrowth discourse is the need to rst recognise
that the usage and implied meaning of the term varies widely.
e way strategy is used in relation to degrowth often reects one
of the following understandings: (i) degrowth is itself a strategy,
(ii) degrowth is a goal or (iii) degrowth is a specic quality of a
strategy. While these dierent applications of strategy do not need
to be contradictory or mutually exclusive, they reect the disjointed
nature of prior discussions of strategy within degrowth and the need
for more conceptual clarity. is would imply consistent use of
terms, commonly accepted denitions, and more specicity on the
relationship between degrowth and strategy.
In some texts, degrowth itself is the strategy, e.g., “degrowth
as a transition strategy” (Perey ) and “degrowth as a social
movement and an economic strategy” (Murphy ). In these
usages, degrowth’s provocative problematisation of the economy can
be understood as a strategy in itself, which echoes its origins as a
“missile word”. rough this understanding of degrowth as a strategy
in itself, the degrowth critique of the current political-economic
system may open up pathways for other concepts and movements
to become hegemonic, e.g. environmental justice struggles. is
usage is echoed clearly in the statement, “ecosocialism is the horizon,
degrowth is the way” (Miller-McDonald ). However, this
usage can be blurry because what exactly “degrowth” is remains
unclear, does it imply just the concept, an economic programme, or
something else?
Elsewhere, degrowth is positioned as a goal and dierent practices
like commoning (Sato and María Soto Alarcón ) or civil
disobedience (Fromm and Schöning ) are described as strategies
to achieve this goal. In these usages, degrowth is an end-point that
strategies take us towards. is usage reects a commonly held
understanding in the degrowth community, that degrowth is not just
a process but also a concrete utopia (Muraca ). is second usage
– degrowth as a goal – is clear on the relation between the two terms.
It positions degrowth on one side and strategies as the way to get
there. However, the term “strategies” is left as an open container to
be lled according to one’s understanding.
Finally, in a third case, degrowth is used as an adjective, to
describe a characteristic of a strategy, e.g., “the slow city approach
as a degrowth strategy” (Chang ). Often implicit in this type of
usage is that a degrowth strategy has distinct characteristics dierent
from non-degrowth strategies, likely reecting degrowth principles
and values. In this usage, the goal is vague, one implicit horizon of
degrowth strategies is a “degrowth future”, but we can also imagine
that degrowth strategies contribute to achieving other utopias. On
the other hand, in this usage, the means is rather clear, but it again
depends on how one understands degrowth and what this descriptor
implies for the strategies it describes.
is exercise of disentangling the dierent usages of degrowth
and strategy can sharpen our understanding of how these terms are
employed, but it also obscures the inter-linkages. ese dierent
usages are not mutually exclusive and it can easily be imagined how
two of them can co-exist in a single theory of change. e various
usages are also important as they can imply a focus on dierent
processes and aims. Namely, the usage of (ii) degrowth as a goal and
(iii) degrowth as a characteristic of a strategy are often inter-linked.
Specically, a common argument in the degrowth community,
and social movements more broadly, is that strategies for degrowth
(as a goal) must follow degrowth principles, or else the strategy
will undermine the goal (Schmid ). In other words, degrowth
strategies for a degrowth future. Yet we should ask, is it possible that
degrowth futures could be achieved through means not identied
by or with degrowth principles? ese two usages, degrowth as
a goal and a characteristic of a strategy are the two most often used
and relevant for the debate, whereas the third usage, degrowth as a
strategy, is seldom used and most blurry in its meaning.
It is important then to draw out the implicit assumptions in
the various usages of strategy as a term and concept in degrowth
debates, and attempt to make explicit: what is the strategy, what
is the goal, who is the agent of change, and where degrowth is
situated. Relatedly, the multiplicity of meanings of degrowth often
adds confusion or ambiguity when using it alongside strategy, since
degrowth can be understood as a loose movement (with some
agency), an umbrella term uniting a diversity of critical social-
ecological academic disciplines, a concrete utopia, and so on. us,
it is not always clear what “degrowth” means when used in relation
to strategy, so specicity would help, e.g., “the degrowth movement”
can pursue strategies, “the degrowth concept” is an eective strategy
for many social-ecological utopias, or “degrowth is a utopia” to
orient strategic action. Another recurring ambiguity in the usage
of strategy in relation to degrowth is the agent of change, does
the loose degrowth network enact these strategies, allied groups or
some other actors? Lastly, often it is unclear what the relationship
is between strategies, if any. In summary, there has been a lack of
both consistency and clarity in the application of strategy as a term
and concept. Degrowth scholarship would, in turn, benet from
conceptual sharpening and further dialogue. is chapter will later
explore a fourth usage of relating degrowth and strategy, which
hopefully points towards a useful next-step in degrowth’s discussion
of strategy.
e importance of strategy for degrowth
e question of how to make degrowth possible was already clearly
raised at the 2
nd
International Degrowth Conference in Barcelona
(). e nal sentence of the one-page declaration from that
conference reads, “e challenge now is how to transform, and the
debate has just begun.” For those who were not there, Demaria et
al. () describe the conference and the discussion on strategy,
“[it] resulted in some dierences and even frictions, but ultimately
dialogue was established” (Ibid., ). Interestingly, they begin a
section of their article titled “Degrowth Strategies” by writing, “e
debates and controversies over strategies employed within each
source of the degrowth movement have been most intense” (Ibid.,
). However, the authors aim to reconcile this, arguing for “the
potential for compatibility among the strategies”, since “diversity
is an indispensable source of richness – so long as participants are
conscious of the limitations of their activities and humble enough
to remain open to constructive criticism and improvements” (Ibid.).
In , a special issue titled, “Degrowth futures and democracy”
(Cattaneo et al. ) outlined the contours of key questions
related to strategy – who is the political subject of a degrowth
transformation, what is the role of democracy, and what scale is
most eective for intervention. e introduction to the special issue
concludes, “What are the implications of dierent understandings
of how change happens for degrowth, e.g., in terms of strategies
available for degrowth transitions?” (Ibid., ). So the questions
that this book raises are nothing new per se, however, since these
important questions were raised, there was little direct engagement
with the topic of degrowth and strategy. Instead, the community
focused on other important things: dierent theoretical perspectives
that inform degrowth (e.g., feminism, environmental justice, etc.),
digging deeper into specic elds (e.g., technology), establishing
degrowth as an emerging academic eld as well as placing it in
new forums (media, politics, etc.) and expanding its network
of researchers and activists. While these were and are valuable
endeavours, comprehensively addressing the question of strategy was
postponed.
In a degrowth.info blog post titled, “Beyond visions and
projects – the need for a debate on strategy in the degrowth
movement” (Herbert et al. ) called on the degrowth community
to further develop its consideration of the role of strategy in
degrowth. Given the seemingly insurmountable barriers to
transformation, the authors argued more attention to the how was
necessary. ey argued that degrowth scholars had until then been
hesitant to recognise certain approaches as more appropriate in
certain contexts, and that some strategies could be incompatible
with each other. e blog post identied what it saw as strategic
indeterminism in the degrowth community (Ibid.). is post then
sparked a ten-part series on strategy at degrowth.info (Barlow
). A diversity of authors articulated important considerations,
including the role of complexity and challenges of strategic
planning (Zografos ), the importance of considering who is
strategising (Sze and Saif ), the danger of prioritising certain
strategies (Foramitti ), the usefulness of history (Feola ),
the applicability of Erik Olin Wright’s framework on strategies
(Chertkovskaya ; Petridis ), identifying strategic entry
points for transformative politics (Krüger ), and the need to
distinguish between strategy in degrowth research versus degrowth
movement organising (Barlow and Herbert ).
Since , there has been visibly much more engagement with
strategy in degrowth debates, which culminated in the most explicit
manifestation engagement by degrowth with strategy thus far: the
Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference: Strategies for Social-ecological
Transformation. e conference put the topic in the spotlight in
a way that had not occurred previously. e conference drew on
threads of discussion in the degrowth community over the previous
ten years (or more), which had addressed the topic of strategy
to varying degrees. e importance of strategy for degrowth has
ebbed and owed but the question of strategy is again getting
attention, and still creating friction but also dialogue. us, strategy
has clearly been a hot topic before, which lay dormant while the
community focused on other endeavours, but is now resurfacing as
a key question amongst many scholars and activists. Let us further
consider some other points in the degrowth and strategy discussion –
namely the role of Erik Olin Wright’s framework.
e work of Erik Olin Wright (and beyond)
In Demaria et al. used the classication of opposition, reformism
and alternatives to distinguish dierent ways of transforming society
towards degrowth, echoing the modes of transformation outlined by
Erik Olin Wright in Envisioning Real Utopias () (see Chapter
for more detail on Wright’s work). Reviving the work of Wright after
some dormancy, Petridis at the 5
th
International Degrowth Conference
in Budapest outlined the usefulness of Wright’s strategic approaches
for degrowth (Petridis ). Four years after Petridis’ presentation
in Budapest, Wright’s typology of strategy was also at the centre of
a panel discussion at the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference, titled
Strategic Approaches: an overview where the panellists explored
the potential and limits of Wright’s work for degrowth. Wright’s
framework was again employed by Tim Parrique in his thesis on
e Political Economy of Degrowth () with a strong focus on
how dierent degrowth demands (often policies) can be brought
forward together from a strategic-political perspective. Limits of
Wright’s work for degrowth, such as its downplaying of ruptural
approaches (Chapter ), limited incorporation of the ecological crises
(Bardi et al. ), among others, make clear the need for degrowth
proponents to further develop a framework for transformation that
is adequate for its vision of social-ecological transformation. is
collected volume also employed Wright’s work to aid in the editorial
team’s and authors’ understanding of strategy, while also being aware
of the limits of Wright’s work.
Talking about strategies (their strengths, weaknesses,
appropriateness, synergies, etc.) necessarily requires a preliminary
conversation about what kind of strategies exist, as well as some
kind of common ontological understanding, which is why Wright’s
typology of strategies has been a useful starting point for degrowth
scholars. It has helped to provide a common language and a basis for
deeper discussions. It can be benecial to rst establish this basis of
discussion and understanding before entering into heated discussions
about which strategy is most in line with degrowth principles,
which may be most eective and which are untenable for degrowth.
e work of Wright is also useful for the discussion of strategy in
the degrowth movement because it outlines a diversity of strategic
approaches, which is compatible with degrowth’s own plurality and
provides a basic vocabulary (interstitial, symbiotic and ruptural) for
talking about strategy.
Degrowth, being an umbrella term (Barca ) composed of
diverse approaches, lends itself to a diversity of strategies being put
forth. us, strategy is a key consideration for not only advancing
degrowth, but also reecting on its internal diversity; a consideration
which is elaborated further by Viviana Asara (see Chapter ).
Related, Dennis Eversberg and Matthias Schmelzer () surveyed
the degrowth community and identied a “spectrum” of “currents”
within degrowth. Eversberg later connected this research to
the typology of Erik Olin Wright at the Degrowth Vienna 2020
Conference, describing the dierent currents of the degrowth
movement according to their strategic orientation. is research
echoed Demaria et al. (), who linked the dierent sources of
degrowth to a diversity of strategies. Importantly, it is this diversity
within degrowth that is sometimes underpinned by dierences in the
understanding of what strategies should be pursued for a degrowth
transformation. One such dierence appears with regards to theories
of change and in particular the contested role of the state, which will
be considered next.
Contested theories of change
To start, let us consider the challenges of a social-ecological
transformation. Blühdorn () argues society has an immense
capacity for and tendency to sustain the unsustainable and the
subsequent politics of unsustainability. Others have written about
the challenges of transformative social-ecological politics due to the
resilience of the rich Western way of living, which is simultaneously
defended politically and made possible through externalising costs
to the periphery – aptly named the imperial mode of living (Brand
and Wissen ). In the context of massive challenges to social-
ecological transformation, Blühdorn et al. () argue that degrowth
lacks a theory of social change, and therefore cannot account for
why a degrowth transformation is not happening and is unlikely
to happen. Given this bleak landscape, how can a degrowth
transformation be understood?
In response to the challenges of realising a social-ecological
transformation, degrowth scholars have explored the usefulness of
causal models to identify leverage points for increasing the viability
of certain degrowth proposals (Videira et al. ). Related, the
political economist and degrowth scholar Hubert Buch-Hansen
has written an article that is highly relevant for degrowth’s thinking
about strategy (). It outlines the key factors that are necessary
for degrowth to be realised as a political project. Additionally, the
collected volume Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth highlights
central questions on this topic and ags the need for degrowth to
devote more attention to “political subjectivity and strategy” due to
“the lack of a clear political strategy” (Chertkovskaya et al., ).
More recently, in March , a panel with leading degrowth
scholars entitled How do we get out of this mess? Degrowth strategies
for change focused on strategies and theories of change for degrowth.
Bringing together the work of Wright and the perspectives of critical
transformation scholars, Schoppek and Krams () further develop
an understanding of pathways and barriers for transformation,
which oers much for thinking about degrowth and strategy. At the
Vienna Degrowth Days in , Jem Vogel presented the two-loops
model for thinking about how systemic change can happen, and its
usefulness for degrowth scholars reecting on strategy. It is clear that
degrowth scholars and scholars of transformation are increasingly
engaging with the tricky question of why a desired social-ecological
transformation may not happen, how to make it more likely, and
what the strategic entry-points, pathways and selectivities (Sum and
Jessop ) are that should be pursued in this specic conjuncture
(Eckersley ).
Following from the emerging discussion on theories of change in
degrowth, one of the key questions is the role of the state. Before
considering specically how (or if) a degrowth strategy should
engage with the state, a conceptualisation of the state from a
degrowth perspective is necessary. D’Alisa () makes an important
contribution by rst outlining degrowth’s lack of a theory of the
state mentioned earlier. D’Alisa (Ibid), and then later D’Alisa and
Kallis (), suggested that degrowth should adopt a Gramscian
understanding of the state and approach its own transformative
ambitions as a counter-hegemonic struggle. ey also employ
Wright’s typology of strategic approaches, solidifying its usefulness
for degrowth and its conceptualisation of strategies. Further drawing
on Wright, they argue that rupture (a total break from capitalism)
is unfeasible for achieving degrowth and instead identify interstitial
and symbiotic strategies as the two key modes of transformation to
be pursued. In this, D’Alisa and Kallis echo Wright’s own position,
dismissing ruptural approaches in favour of symbiotic and interstitial
strategies.
Another event that sparked debate on strategy and the role of
the state was the 6
th
International Degrowth Conference in Malmö
(), where a panel discussion intensied over questions of how
to achieve social-ecological transformation, from the perspectives
of scholars outside degrowth but sympathetic to it (Degrowth.info
Editorial Team ). While degrowth is a uniting term for many
diverse academic elds and political traditions, this panel revealed
the potential for real divisions within degrowth (see Chapter , for
more detail).
ese dierences within the degrowth community also surfaced
at the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference. For example, Miriam Lang
cautioned about the role of the state in a degrowth transformation.
She has written elsewhere () that the state perpetuates
domination and stabilises capital accumulation, a process that
morphs agents for transformative change into upholders of rules,
norms and institutions they aimed to transform. On the same
panel, Andreas Novy, drawing on the work of Karl Polanyi, argued
that coercion, rules/regulation, and collectively dened (as well as
enforced) limits are necessary to achieve a good life for all within
planetary boundaries, which necessitates “another statehood” (Novy
). Related, Koch () argues the state has the potential to
overcome its growth imperative and transition to a post-growth
green state.
During a session on theories of change at the Degrowth Vienna
2020 Conference, Andro Rilovic () argued in his presentation
Anarchism and Degrowth, two sides of the same coin, that eco-
anarchism is most compatible with degrowth principles and
that interstitial transformations should be pursued instead of
symbiotic approaches. Similarly, Ted Trainer () has argued for a
community-based approach to degrowth that excludes, bypasses, or
radically reduces the role of the state in a process of transformation.
At the 8
th
International Degrowth Conference in e Hague (),
a thematic stream was dedicated to anarchism and degrowth,
highlighting the compatibilities between these two approaches
and the potential for mutual learning. On the one hand there are
voices within degrowth arguing that the state is not a viable agent of
change towards degrowth, and on the other hand, many degrowth
scholars have written extensively on policy proposals, which often
implicitly require the state apparatus (Cosme et al. )(Cattaneo
and Vansintjan ) e.g., universal basic income or a Green New
Deal (Mastini et al. ). us, the analysis within degrowth on the
role of the state is varied and at times contested.
Clearly, the contradictions and compatibilities of the state in a
transformation towards degrowth is one of the key conversations
around strategy in degrowth at the moment. ese dierences do
not per se imply incompatibly or conicting approaches, but surely
there are some real dierences between these approaches in how they
come to terms with the likelihood of degrowth actually happening
or, more consequentially, what it implies about whether degrowth
cannot happen (due to incompatibilities between means and goals).
is makes it increasingly clear that “degrowth’s strategic orientation
(...) needs a strategy for the state” (Chapter ).
Considering viable and desirable pathways to creating degrowth
societies is a key point for the degrowth community’s discussion
of strategy. e next section will try to bring together some of the
learnings from degrowth’s consideration of strategy so far and link it
to a possible next step in the discussion.
A strategic assemblage for degrowth
is chapter has so far considered how strategy as a term has
been used dierently in degrowth, the relevance of Wright’s
transformative strategies, the internal diversity and plurality of
degrowth approaches, the ongoing work to better understand
degrowth’s theory of change, and the contentious question of the
role of the state in a degrowth transformation. Degrowth scholars
are engaging more and more with degrowth’s relationship to strategy,
but still, there are under-explored aspects, and this nal section will
explore one – which mix of actions and strategies degrowthers nds
desirable and necessary for transformation and what its own role in
this transformation can be. Brand and Wissen write, with regards
to research on social-ecological transformation, the urgent need
to “consider and evaluate the various strategies and possibilities for
dealing with the multiple crises” (, ). So what does that process
look like for degrowth?
We can separate the process into two nested questions, the
rst is a broader question, and the second is a more specic
question: () what mix of strategies does the degrowth community
nd appropriate and necessary for a process of social-ecological
transformation?; and () what is the degrowth community’s role
in this process? e considerations necessary for each of these two
questions are distinct. e former requires new methods, criteria for
analysis, and evaluation, which would be underpinned by a theory
of change. Whereas the latter requires internal deliberation, decision-
making and possibly action.
To help answer the second, and more specic question, we can
return to the three usages of degrowth and strategy described
at the start of this chapter. To repeat, references to “strategy” in
the degrowth literature so far fall roughly into three overlapping
categories: (i) degrowth as a strategy: degrowth is itself a strategy
for achieving a goal of just and sustainable futures; (ii) strategies
for degrowth: degrowth is a goal and otherwise dened practices or
actions are the strategies to realise it; and (iii) degrowth strategies:
degrowth is a descriptor and characteristic of certain strategies. Here,
the usage strategies for degrowth, and qualied to those strategies
pursued by the degrowth movement, specify clearly the relationship
between strategy and degrowth (as a movement) that would need to
be investigated to answer the question () above. e contribution
of members of the degrowth.info editorial team (see Chapter ) and
Asara (see Chapter ) are invaluable in addressing this topic. ey
suggest possible forums for such discussions, hinting at the potential
for the degrowth movement to make decisions and prioritisations if
it so desires, but also reecting the tensions in a diverse movement
making common decisions.
To answer the rst and broader question, () what mix of strategies
does the degrowth community nd appropriate and necessary? the usages
of strategy which have been used thus far in degrowth literature
are not enough. Since few scholars have attempted to articulate
which mix, collection, or assemblage of strategies are necessary for
a social-ecological transformation. Here I will introduce a fourth
usage mentioned earlier in this chapter to assist in answering this
question – a strategic assemblage for degrowth. A strategic assemblage
for degrowth is an understanding of how an intentional mix
of
strategies could t together for reexive action towards a degrowth
society, with an understanding of where the degrowth movement’s
own humble actions t into this broad, complex and interlinking
mix.
6 An assemblage implies multiplicity rather than unity, but it is not just a random mix of
multiple elements, but a particular arrangement. is denition draws on the work of Nail
(2017), which Ekaterina Chertkovskaya pointed me to.
e word assemblage is important for degrowth’s approach to
strategy because it is rooted in the need for intentionality but also
diversity. Intenionality acknowledges the massive barriers that an
ambitious project like degrowth faces, but also the need to act in
the here and now towards a desired social-ecological transformation.
is therefore requires coordinated and meaningfully inter-linked
actions, since plurality alone is not a strategy. On the other hand,
a key feature of using strategic assemblage as a term is that it
acknowledges the diversity of degrowth, and the multitude of actions
and approaches associated with it. erefore, such an assemblage
would accommodate plurality but also necessitate prioritization
and
an intentional consideration of how strategic actions can (or in some
instances cannot) inter-relate and the role of coordination towards
such an assemblage.
Adhering to the denition that strategy is a thought construct
(see the Introduction), this means that a strategic assemblage is a
self-understanding and articulation by the degrowth community
of activists and scholars. us, a strategic assemblage is not a
static plan nor a specic action, but rather a “exible mental
map” (Introduction, ) of desired strategies. Flexibilty is key,
because it ensures space for feedback, learning, experimentation
and adaptation. An understanding of desired strategies would be
empirically and theoretically informed, comprised of strategies in
line with degrowth principles (self-organised, rooted in principles
of justice, feminism, anti-racism, etc.). is would require further
deliberation on where to draw the dicult lines between what is/isn’t
a strategy rooted in degrowth principles. us, a strategic assemblage
is a constantly evolving orientation, balancing between an arbitrary
direction and a xed course.
In terms of agency, a strategic assemblage must include a diversity
of actors for a social-ecological transformation, with the degrowth
7 Gabriel Trettel Silva encouraged me to preserve the term assemblage rather than
assemblages to emphasise the need for greater coordination, prioritization, and a further
problematisation of strategic indeterminism.
movement itself being only one of a plethora of actors. Implying that
while a degrowth society may be the strategic horizon for the degrowth
movement of scholars and activists, there are other related and allied
visions of a desired social-ecological transformation. Additionally, such
an imagined degrowth transfomartion cannot be achieved alone by the
degrowth movement, but necessarily requires allies.
In summary, articulating a strategic assemblage for degrowth is one
of the most challenging tasks for degrowth’s debate around strategy as
it will require embracing plurality while acknowledging that not all
strategies are equally useful for achieving degrowth in a given context.
Much work has already been done in preparing the foundation for
the degrowth community, if it so chooses, to collectively enhance a
common understanding of a strategic assemblage for degrowth and
situating its own agency within this canvas of actions.
is chapter has argued that engagement with the topic of strategy
has ebbed and owed since , but there has undoubtedly been
a growing consensus in recent years around the need for more
rigorous debates on strategy within the degrowth community. is
has been reected in informal talks and blog posts, panel discussions
and scientic papers. e uptick of interest has drawn together
diuse threads of discussion throughout the history of the degrowth
movement that had not yet consolidated into a coherent debate. ere
are still many open questions around this topic, of which the usefulness
of thinking about a strategic assemblage is just one. e rest of this book
aims to continue to enhance the knowledge on degrowth and strategy
while also pointing towards promising areas of further development.
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Degrowth movement(s):
strategising and plurality
Chapter :
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring
By Viviana Asara
Introduction
e concept of degrowth refers to at least three interconnected
analytical objects or levels of meaning
. First, degrowth is a political
project and a (concrete) utopia (Muraca ) with a set of ideas
and imaginaries about what an alternative society is to be, and a
critique of current (growth-centred, capitalist) societies. Second,
degrowth has a movement dimension: while for some it is itself an
emerging social movement (Burkhart, Schmelzer, and Treu ;
Eversberg and Schmelzer , ; Martínez-Alier et al. ), for
others it is rather “an interpretative frame” (Demaria et al. ) or
even an “archipelago” (Muraca , –) for the convergence of
dierent movements. Here, two similar concepts borrowed from
social movement studies can help us understand this movement
dimension. One is the concept of the “movement area” introduced
by sociologist Alberto Melucci back in the s
, namely “networks
composed of a multiplicity of groups that are dispersed, fragmented,
and submerged in everyday life, and which act as cultural
laboratories” (Melucci , ). is concept emphasises collective
action that is mainly engaged in latent movement activities – such
as the experimentation and practice of new cultural models, forms
of relationships, and meanings of the world – characterised by
multiple forms of memberships and only periodical contentious
8 I thank Emanuele Leonardi for suggesting this threefold distinction during our
conversations. Furthermore, this distinction is similar to the one highlighted by
Chertkovskaya 2022.
9 I thank Laura Centemeri for having raised this point during our conversations.
mobilisation (Melucci ). e concept of “social movement
community”(Staggenborg ) is also useful in that it stresses that
“community” is forged through social networks and a movement
culture created through the overlapping participation of individuals
in diverse movements with similar values (i.e., the alter/anti-
globalization movement, feminist movement, environmental and
climate justice movements, solidarity economy movements etc.).
Finally, born at the intersection between a culturalist and
ecological critique of economics (Latouche ), degrowth’s third
level of meaning has increasingly involved the development of an
interdisciplinary eld of investigation and can now be considered
to be a research paradigm, interlacing disciplines from ecological
economics, social ecology, and political ecology to anthropology,
sociology, and political science and economy, among others (Kallis et
al. ; Weiss and Cattaneo ).
is multi-perspectival approach suggests that the degrowth
community and worldviews hold some substantial degree of
heterogeneity and diversity, as is often remarked by degrowth
authors. For example, Barca et al. (, ) argue that degrowth’s
key strength is its multiplicity of ideas and movements, and that
it should further embrace a “nomadic utopianism” which, by
proceeding through a non-hierarchical organisation, maximises
dierence and benets from a pluriverse of possible worlds and
self-critiques. But how is such a dierence articulated? And, more
importantly, if the degrowth movement aims to have any impact on
social and political systems, how can a strategic plan be devised in
the face of plurality?
In this chapter, I will scrutinise the range and features of
degrowth’s plurality and, using a lens of social movement theory,
discuss what movements’ internal diversity and intersectionality
might involve in terms of collective identity and transformative
potential. Furthermore, I will delve into the multi-dimensionality
of strategy, arguing that the fostering of strategic thinking and
decision-making cannot prescind from dealing with the movement’s
organisational structure. I will situate this argument within the
degrowth movement’s recent history, and show that the movement
is facing a critical juncture, reecting on some weaknesses and
potential ways forward.
is chapter’s ndings draw, rst, on my own experience as a
participant in the degrowth movement as both an “activist” – as
a member of the association Research & Degrowth since ,
of the Support Group for only a few months in , and of the
Advisory Board of the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference: Strategies
for Social-ecological Transformation – as well as an academic that has
participated in six international degrowth conferences. Second, the
ndings have been substantially enriched by an interview carried out
with an activist, Jean-Louis Aillon, deeply involved in the degrowth
movement at both the national (in the Italian Movimento per la
Decrescita Felice) and international scale (as a member of the Support
Group).
Plurality in degrowth
e degrowth movement’s diversity has been investigated
empirically. Eversberg and Schmelzer () conducted a survey at
the 4
th
International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig (), drawing
on a sample of respondents out of more than conference
participants. While the sample is not representative of the entire
degrowth community, it provides an idea of the diversity inherent
in the movement and I believe is useful for grasping some main
cleavages and tensions cutting across the degrowth community.
e survey identied ve dierent and even conicting currents
within the movement : ) a group of Critics of Civilisation, who
have a radical ecological and suciency-oriented approach, and
hold a very negative view of industrial contemporary society as
incapable of being reformed, thus focusing on building small-scale
and frugal alternative local community projects; ) a pragmatic
and moderate group of Immanent Reformers, with an optimistic
stance on technology and progress and a pragmatic take on politics,
believing that changes should be pursued within existing institutions
rather than by means of individual behaviour; ) a younger and
weakly politicised cluster of voluntarist-pacist idealists, probably
transitory due to their young age, who see degrowth as a peaceful
and voluntary process; ) a group of classical Modernist-Rationalist
Leftists, privileging just distribution rather than ecological issues,
and oriented towards an understanding of transformative change
based on strategic considerations (rather than on ethical grounds)
by means of classical mass organisations and socialist policies; ) a
particularly militant Alternative Practical Left group displaying a
erce critique of capitalism and industrial civilisation, with the belief
that the necessary transformation will require a decisive rupture
with existing societal structures. is latter group combines a radical
critique of society with a practice of experimenting with possible
alternatives, inspired by anarchist thought. Based on their cluster
analysis, the authors note that while the two most ideologically
divided positions are clusters and , the fth group seems to occupy
a mediating position between them because its “radical views criss-
cross the divide between a wholesale critique of civilisation on the
one hand and a rationalist-progressive position on the other” (Ibid.,
).
e tension between more classical left/Marxist currents and more
anarchic strands seems indeed to be one that is cutting across the
degrowth community. On the one hand, degrowth is conspicuously
inspired by an anarchist subculture and tradition that “rely on self-
organisation from the bottom-up” (Burkhart et al. , ) and
stresses “the need for a voluntary and democratic downshift” (Cosme
et al. , ). Often this inuence is explicit at international
conferences. For example, anarchism was one of the thematic strands
of the 8
th
International Degrowth Conference in e Hague (). On
the other hand, as shown by a review of academic works published in
peer-reviewed journals (Cosme et al. ), the majority of degrowth
proposals “require direct control by governments (e.g., caps, taxes,
and regulations), which suggests the need for a high level of state
intervention to pursue a degrowth transition” (Ibid., ). D’Alisa
() sees in this paradox a bifurcation between two approaches that
are currently bringing life into the degrowth camp, one dedicated
to practice (such as alternative economies) and the other to policies
(such as basic income, work-sharing etc.), and reads these two
factions as embodying Erik Olin Wright’s interstitial and symbiotic
strategies for transformation beyond capitalism (see also Chapter ).
Other degrowth authors have drawn on Wright’s categories
(see e.g., Chapter this volume; Asara a) to stress that
complementarity between dierent ideological positions can be
found. Indeed, for Wright, interstitial transformations are associated
with some strands of anarchism, ruptural strategies with Leninism
and, more generally, revolutionary communism and socialism, and
symbiotic strategies are associated with social democracy (Wright
). However, this complementarity cannot be taken for granted.
It is noteworthy, for example, that the meaning of “ruptural”
strategies becomes quite dierent when read through an anarchist-
inspired lens (see Chapter ) or from the perspective of Marxist/
classical left tradition, which is more consonant with Wright’s
(, ) meaning of “ruptural” as the Leninist strategic logic of
“smashing capitalism” that Wright attributes to revolutionaries.
At the 6
th
International Degrowth Conference in Malmö (),
this tension between dierent ideological positions was manifested
in a heated plenary
(MalmoDegrowth ) where the discussion
increasingly drifted from the planned topic of a dialogue between
dierent knowledges to the “hot” topics of political strategies and
ideologies not heretofore debated at previous degrowth conferences
(see Table . in Chapter ). One of the panellists, Andreas Malm –
in his rst participation in a degrowth conference – advocated for a
politics of vanguardism and what he called “ecological Leninism” and
“war communism”, with a strong role of the state forcing through
unpopular policies such as mandatory veganism. is created some
strong reactions from the audience – with some people clapping
and several protesting – including the intervention of Miriam Lang,
which pointed to the limits of “Leninist” progressive governments
during the Latin American pink tide. Malm responded that these
governments were akin to social democracy rather than revolutionary
socialism or oppositional communism. In his latest book (Malm
), he deepened these arguments, arguing that in today’s chronic
(climate) emergency hard state power is required, starting with
“draconian restraints and cuts”, including economic plans, covering
all branches of economic activities, and nothing less than ecological
war communism (Ibid., ). An ecological Leninism for Malm is
the “only one that can point to an emergency exit”, foregrounding
“speed as paramount virtue” (Ibid., ), and imposing, in a way that
resounds with the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, the will of
one part of the population upon the other.
Malm’s position seems to be poles apart from other degrowth
authors’ invocation of the deepening of democracy as part and
parcel of the degrowth transformation, or visions of a bottom-
up constitution of local communities or demoi federated at
dierent levels (Demaria et al. ; Asara et al. ; Deriu
; Chertkovskaya forthcoming). While it is uncertain whether
Malm can be depicted as a degrowth supporter himself (i.e., in his
publications he does not use the term), bringing Leninism and in
general communism together with degrowth has not been solely
Malm’s pursuit. A mailing list and forum for discussion called
“degrowth communism” was born in recent years, aiming to bring
together and establish a dialogue between communism and the
tradition of historical materialism, on one hand, and degrowth,
on the other, as “traditions of thinking and practising the social-
ecological transformation and the system change needed to achieve
an environmentally safe and socially just life for all” (Beuret et al.
). is led to the setting up of a workshop session at the
Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference (Ibid). Malm’s book has stimulated
some vibrant discussions within the degrowth communism mailing
list, with diverse positions, from critical to sympathetic
, and some
10 I thank Emanuele Leonardi for this insight.
of these reections have reached an external public. Bue Rübner
Hansen (), for example, interestingly notes that Malm’s framing
of the key choice to be made “in terms of the old debate between
anarchism and a politics aimed at seizing state power” introduces
a “strategic blindspot”: while there is “plenty of Leninist will”
(take state power), there is “little to say about the processes of class
composition which allowed Lenin’s rise”, thus relying on a “popular
power it cannot bring into being, and that it does not respect, even
as it mythologises it”.
ese discussions reveal how nuanced the ideological landscape
is, yet ideological divergences are not the only forms of dierences.
In terms of members’ background, while there is a heterogeneity
of proles from practitioners to artists, and researchers – and while
activists have played an important role in the genealogy of degrowth
(Muraca ; Parrique ) – academics seem to have played a
leading role as “movement intellectuals” (Eyerman and Jamison
), crucial for the construction of the movement’s collective
identity, since at least . As my interviewee stated: “what denes
us the most is our theoretical frame, rather than a prole of action
or practical activism (…) and those who dene our identity are
mainly academics.” Not only have international conferences, partly
due to their very format, seen academics as protagonists of most
sessions and plenaries, researchers have also played a prominent role
in collectives that act as central nodes for the movement, such as
Research & Degrowth in Barcelona, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie
in Germany, Associazione per la Decrescita in Italy, or the Institute
of Political Ecology in Croatia. Indeed, around of all degrowth
groups are involved in research, as identied by an online survey
and mapping exercise organised by degrowth activists and advertised
across degrowth mailing lists and networks. Relatedly, while another
form of diversity has to do with the various foci and practices of
degrowth activism (see Chapter ), probably the most important
repertoire of action of the degrowth movement area so far has been
the gathering of researchers, activists, practitioners, and artists
around international and regional degrowth conferences that take
place (almost) annually (see Chapter ).
ere is also not much diversity in activists’ class and ethnic
background, as supporters seem to mainly come from the ranks of
the white and academically-educated middle class and students
(Eversberg and Schmelzer ), a point also discussed extensively
during the degrowth conference in Vienna. While degrowth
conferences have fostered a dialogue and built alliances with
alternatives and movements from the Global South, increasingly
foregrounding the need for a decolonial and pluriversal approach,
degrowth has so far been mostly a debate and movement developed
in the Global North, as visible in the “degrowth map” (Karte von
morgen n.d.) which found groups/collectives across the world
that dene themselves as part of the degrowth movement, based
however mostly in the Global North, and, most of all, in Europe.
Having ascertained that the degree of diversity is substantial in
some respects (ideologies and strategic logics) but more limited
in others, the question is whether this degree of diversity is unique
or exceptional in social movements, and how such diversity can be
integrated into a common narrative.
It is important to point out that plurality has been a key feature of
movements that can be considered as “sister” and even “mother”
movements of degrowth. e valorisation of dierence has been at
the heart of the global justice movement, not by chance referred to as
the “movement of movements”. e World Social Forum has been a
prominent space for encountering and cross-pollinating dierences.
However, the movement was not simply a collection of heterogenous
groups, rather, its collective identity was characterised by “a common
construction” of an “alter-global subjectivity” (Toscano , ),
displaying an ideological coherency around “justice globalism” (Steger
and Wilson ). Similarly, environmental movements at both the
international scale and in diverse countries such as the United Kingdom
and Italy have been referred to as a “very broad church” (Berny and
Rootes , ), an “archipelago” (Diani ), or a “phenomenon
that is highly diverse in its forms of organisation and action (Doherty
). e family of environmental justice movements is particularly
diverse, including, more prominently, the poor and marginalised – also
due to their embeddedness in other social movements, from Indigenous
movements and those for racial equality to movements for occupational
health (Asara ; Sicotte and Brulle ).
Such entanglements have been found to have the potential of
reaching a more heterogenous constituency (Heaney and Rojas
) and of increasing a movement’s transformative potential
thanks to the intersectionality of struggles that allows to integrate
social justice and ecological concerns (see Asara b; Gottlieb
). What plays a fundamental role are movements’ eorts
to integrate the dierent dimensions of their collective identity
(Melucci ; Toscano ; Asara ), i.e., the sense of a “we”
negotiated through evolving tensions within movements, developed
interactively through connections within a group at three interwoven
levels: a cognitive and moral framework, relational, and emotional
investments (Calhoun ; Polletta and Jasper ).
In the degrowth movement, despite its internal diversity,
empirical research has found that two main cognitive pillars of
collective identity involve the insistence on the destructiveness of
economic growth. is entails the need for a reduction of material
throughput and consumption in the Global North and a vision of
a transformation that is pro-feminist, peaceful, democratic, bottom-
up, and critical of capitalism (Eversberg and Schmelzer ).
However, the capitalist and industrial growth imperative would also
need to be overcome in the Global South (see Chapter ).
In the next and nal section, I will turn to the issue of strategy,
trying to grapple with the following question: how can or should
such a heterogenous and multiple transnational movement try to
set up and enact a “common strategy” (Barca et al. , )? is
requires rst dening what we mean by strategy in social movements.
Movement strategies and structure: the degrowth movement at a
critical juncture
Social movement scholars dene strategy as:
“A plan of collective action intended to accomplish goals within
a particular context. Social movement strategy is located at
the intersection between structure and agency, and it entails
dening, interpreting, communicating, and implementing a
plan of collective action that is believed to be a promising way
to achieve a desired alternative future in light of circumstances.”
(Maney et al. , xviii).
Strategy is a multi-level process, as plans of action, contexts and goals
can be distinguished based on the level of social aggregation (micro,
e.g., individual level; meso, e.g., groups or organisational level;
or macro, e.g., movement or coalition level), type of institution,
geographic scope, duration (short term or long term), cultural and
structural characteristics, and multiple strategies can be in place in
the same movement (Maney et al. ).
is claries that there is not a single, common strategy that
should be devised by the degrowth movement, but manifold,
overlapping, and embedded types of strategic decisions, depending
for instance on the scale of consideration (transnational movement
or local), on the temporal timeframe, or arena of action. is is
especially the case for degrowth activism which is, similarly to other
environmental movements, diuse and wide-ranging and involves a
complex web of actors and a range of spaces and scales (North ;
Porta and Rucht ).
Moreover, following Meyer and Staggenborg () we can
identify (at least) three major elements of strategic decision-
making: the goals and demands made by a social movement; the
tactics or forms of collective action (that is, the specic means of
implementing strategy, such as demonstrations, lawsuits, direct
action tactics and institutionalised tactics such as lobbying etc.);
and arenas (i.e., venues in which to press movement claims, e.g.,
legislatures, courts, the public, mass media, electoral politics).
However, it is noteworthy that while for Meyer and Staggenborg
a movement’s internal organisation only counts as an inuence
for strategies, according to a pregurative understanding of social
movements, a movement’s internal organisation counts as one
main dimension of a movement strategy, because means and ends
should not be overly detached and a movement’s internal practices
and organisations are themselves strategic (Maeckelbergh ).
Indeed, internal strategy (movement building) and external strategy
(projected outward towards achieving goals beyond the movement)
are intimately linked, not only because the latter depends on the
way the movement (and social movement organisations within it)
is organised, but also because the former is also subject to strategic
decision-making. Organisational variation includes various issues
such as the extent and type of formalisation or bureaucratisation,
professionalisation, grassroots participation, centralisation and
hierarchy in decision-making structures, links among various levels
such as national, local and, international levels, and forums available
for decision-making and deliberation (Meyer and Staggenborg ).
How has the degrowth movement fared against such a backdrop,
and evolved over time? One of the outcomes of the rst two
international conferences in Paris () and Barcelona () was
the creation of the association Research & Degrowth in France
and then in Spain. e latter, with its Barcelona group of ICTA
(Institute of Environmental Science and Technology) researchers,
acted as a supervising actor for the organisation of the following
conferences, starting with the Venice and Montreal conferences.
Following some accusations of over-directing the conference
organisation process, the Support Group – composed of delegates
of organisational groups of previous conferences – was created
after the 3
rd
International Degrowth Conference in Venice () to
facilitate the organisation of each conference in a more collegial
way. At the 5
th
International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig (),
a Group Assembly Process called “Building Collective Actions” was
set up to “understand who we are, what we do, whom we want to
collaborate with” (interview). As mentioned by the interviewee,
from the Leipzig Group Assembly Process “emerges the need to
structure ourselves a bit better, also in order to provide people with
the possibility to participate in this international network”. is
led to the rst mapping exercise, and to the rst assembly of the
international degrowth movement, which took place in Christiania
just before the 6
th
International Degrowth Conference in Malmö
(), as a pre-conference. is rst assembly was facilitated by an
informal ad-hoc Network Coordination Group that sprouted from
the Support Group. e assembly included around people as part
of collectives, and “took a very basic decision, that is to create a
loose network and stay in contact through a movement’s mailing list”
(interview). Moreover, in the Christiania assembly, several working
groups were created, such as the Activists and Practitioners group –
which among other things has been organising the Global Degrowth
Day since – and the degrowth.info editorial team was formalised
(see Chapter ), becoming the media arm of the degrowth movement
(Degrowth.info n.d.).
During this period the need emerged to “give us a more
representative bottom-up structure than the SG” (interview). Indeed,
while the SG is perceived as a horizontal structure, it is not an open
body representative of the movement (as mentioned above, it is
constituted of organisers of previous conferences) or a body endowed
with the task of coordinating or catalysing specic initiatives outside
of the conference realm. Due to the lack of other representative
bodies, the Support Group has however increasingly assumed several
tasks beyond conference organisation such as managing funds from
foundations. is happened after the granting of the rst substantial
funding in from the Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer pour le
Progrès de l’Homme, and a Support Group meeting in Paris. Here
“there has been a debate: ‘do we want to take responsibility only
for the conferences or for the movement?’ – ‘But we don’t have the
mandate to take care of the movement.’ – ‘But no one does it’...”
(interview). Ultimately, it was decided that in a -year-transition
period the Support Group would try to bring about a structuring
of the network, and a network coordination group was formally
established to organise and facilitate the assemblies. e funding fed
into conference expenses, the degrowth.info media platform, summer
schools, a scholarship for the ICTA Master programme on degrowth,
IT support, expenses for the Support Group and the Activist
Group meetings, and so on. As expectable, decisions over funding
allocation, however, generated some tensions in the Support Group.
In addition, insucient coordination between the autonomous
groups resulted in some “misunderstandings” or “tensions” between
them. is has somewhat improved in the last year with the
constitution of the “Coordination of the nodes of degrowth”, a
(virtual) space of encounter and information exchange between the
diverse groups that compose its network.
e second assembly took place right before the 8
th
International
Degrowth Conference in e Hague (), where a potential two-
level structure was discussed: the assembly, and a group that
will represent it and constitute the “political steering” of the
international degrowth movement – potentially endowed with the
tasks of organising international initiatives, managing the funds, and
coordinating the various autonomous groups. However, a decision
on this issue was postponed to a later meeting to take place in Spring
.
As this short historical excursus demonstrates, the degrowth
movement has mostly had a very loose organisational structure (also
referred to as “an unstructured (…) way of organising” in Chapter )
but steps are slowly being taken, in dribs and drabs, to endow it with
more structure and coordination following increasing recognition
that this structurelessness is greatly limiting the movement’s
potential.
In the s, Jo Freeman () referring to the women’s liberation
movement, famously argued that structurelessness led to the
production of elites not accountable to the rest of the movement
and to a weakened capability to control the directions in which it
develops and the political actions in which it engages. I believe that
this loose organisation may have indeed hampered the political
actions and ecacy of the movement as well as kept it in a sort of
limbo, for instance with respect to the role of the Support Group,
or the capability of making political declarations about degrowth
(accomplished only at the rst two conferences). Furthermore,
it seems to have created “some underlying tensions between the
dierent groups – which however have never been revealed in a
clear-cut manner – which have to do with legitimacy and with
what degrowth is” (interview). Finally, this structurelessness has
probably also contributed to the heightened visibility of academics’
contribution to the movement’s collective identity. However,
according to my interviewee, there are some countervailing fears
linked with advancing towards structuring, because “structures” are
paradoxically associated with “granting power” (interview).
e two-level structure discussed at the pre-conference in e
Hague could be a nice starting point. Following Freeman (), its
institution would need to take into consideration the following basic
issues (the same goes with the Degrowth International, see Chapter
): procedures for the selection of delegates and their rotation,
accountability mechanisms, allocation of tasks/distribution of
labour and type of relationships among the nodes of the network,
distribution of authority and of resources, and diusion of
information to everyone. Whether the opportunity will be seized or
whether the state of limbo will be protracted due to some underlying
fears or failure to reach a consensus cannot be anticipated now. What
is certain is that time has come for the degrowth movement to evolve
into a space where not only political debates are made in academic
journals, in the media or at conferences – thus spreading its ideas –
but wherein strategic decisions are made to reach specic goals.
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Chapter :
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International
By Andro Rilović, Constanza Hepp, Joëlle Saey-Volckrick, Joe
Herbert and Carol Bardi
11
En el mundo que queremos nosotros caben todos.
El mundo que queremos es uno donde quepan muchos mundos.
In the world we want everyone ts.
e world we want is one where many worlds t.
–ezln (1996)
Introduction
e degrowth movement is complex and diuse. ere is no one
specic entity or gathering space from which to collect concrete
and denitive information about it; the international degrowth
conferences perhaps come closest. Nevertheless, in this chapter, we
oer an analysis of the current landscape of key degrowth actors and
their strategies, as seen from our position within one of the nodes of
international degrowth networks: the degrowth.info webportal.
e webportal provides information on degrowth as both
an academic concept and a growing movement comprised of
activists, practitioners and researchers. Our contribution towards
social-ecological transformation lies in the provision of degrowth
information and resources, acting as an important organisational
node and platform within wider degrowth networks. e current
degrowth.info team came together after an eort was made in
to give the web portal a more international outlook and reach,
11 e order of authors has been randomised
building from its German origins as the website for the International
Degrowth Conference in Leipzig (). During our time within the
degrowth.info collective, each of us has also participated in various
other degrowth groups, campaigns and research, mainly within
European degrowth networks. e perspective we oer in this
chapter emerges from these experiences and contexts.
In the language we will use to describe current degrowth
actors, there are many nuances, and we can start by considering
the characterisation of degrowth as a movement. With plurality,
self-determination and decolonisation as core principles, it
would be imprecise – and some would argue undesirable – to
describe degrowth as a movement, in the singular form. In
fact, it is more of a network, or movement of movements, and
an overarching discourse that touches upon and intertwines
with a myriad of social movements striving for social-ecological
transformation – as described, for example, in the bookDegrowth in
Movement(s)(Burkhart et al. ) – which makes for a challenging
terrain to navigate in an organisational and strategic sense.
Boundaries of degrowth networks are permeable since denitions
are either loose or non-existent and depend on who is observing or
describing these networks and for what purpose.
is degrowth network of networks remains largely unstructured
and functions mainly through personal connections, with loose
arrangements for communication, and virtually no overarching
coordination.While some of this exibility is intentional, we argue
that the current lack of organisational structure increasingly appears
more limiting than benecial for degrowth strategising. In this
chapter, we identify key existing degrowth actors and their strategies
based on our perception of their agency, which emerges from either
the respect they hold within the wider degrowth networks, their
resources (intellectual and/or nancial), or evidence that they have
played an important role in shaping the degrowth discourse and
movement(s). Based on our analysis, we propose moving forward
with the creation of an intentional organisational structure that can
facilitate more eective strategising amongst degrowth actors, while
also addressing problematic power dynamics, colonial attitudes, and
patriarchal biases.
Before moving on to the more concrete description of current
degrowth actors, networks and their strategies, we start by providing
some important historical context of their development.
e academic-centred development of degrowth actors and
strategies
Degrowth as a concept has its roots in the s (Gorz ), or
arguably even before that. However, modern degrowth networks
emerged at the beginning of the
st
century. From our perspective,
the most clear and consistent strategy of degrowth actors so far has
been knowledge building, engaging in dialogue, and diusing ideas.
One prominent tool for accomplishing this strategy has been the
organisation of international conferences where all those interested
in degrowth ideas – activists, practitioners, artists, academics and
so on – can come together and build connections to work towards
social-ecological transformation(s). Accordingly, the actors that have
so far become important and visible nodes in degrowth networks
have – in one way or another – been associated with one of the
international degrowth conferences. Our collective at degrowth.info is
one such group. After attracting much interest as the website of the
International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig () (as degrowth.
de), the idea emerged to transform the domain into an international
degrowth webportal in order to proliferate the dissemination of
degrowth ideas and information.
From the very beginning, international degrowth conferences were
envisioned as more than purely academic gatherings. For example,
an early degrowth symposium in Lyon in included “protests
for a car- and ad-free city, the foundation of food cooperatives, as
well as communal meals in the streets” (Degrowth.info a). e
International Degrowth Conferences for Ecological Sustainability and
Social Equity – which started in Paris in – have continued in
this spirit, providing a space and time in which to engage with key
theoretical debates as well as to live a degrowth life for a week and
enact degrowth practices.
In a similar vein, since , the Research and Degrowth
collective, which is largely based at the Institute of Environmental
Sciences and Technologies (ICTA) in the Universidad Autónoma
de Barcelona (UAB), has hosted a popular annual Degrowth and
Environmental Justice Summer School (R&D a), that brings
together international participants to engage with degrowth research
and practices. Building from this, ICTA has launched the rst
master’s degree programme on the explicit topic of degrowth, which
incorporates dialogues and engagement with activist projects (R&D
b).
While the issue of strategy has been present in degrowth debates
from the very early days of the movement’s emergence at the
beginning of the
st
century (see e.g., Videira et al. ), it was
not until the online conference in organised from Vienna
that strategy became a focused theme of any degrowth meeting. Yet,
organisers of other degrowth conferences have themselves adopted
dierent strategic orientations depending on the contexts in which
they operate, and their judgements regarding the most eective ways
for advancing a degrowth agenda. For example, broadly speaking,
the Budapest conference () foregrounded the academic rigour of
degrowth research, which would mark degrowth as a serious concept
in the eyes of policy-makers, whereas the Leipzig conference ()
aimed to draw links to social movements (e.g., climate justice) by
adopting a more activist tone (Brand ).
e above exposition could lead to the conclusion that degrowth’s
development is centred in academia. However, this academic work
should not be seen as separate from broader action for social and
political change. After all, academic and social/political engagement
are not binary and exclusive categories – and much of the work in
degrowth has indeed blurred the boundaries between the two.
Actors in the degrowth networks
Having provided some background context of degrowth’s
development, we now introduce the current landscape of degrowth
actors as we see it, whilst acknowledging that there may be more
relevant actors than can possibly be mentioned in this short
contribution. In line with our discussion of the key role of the
international conferences in degrowth’s evolution, in Table .. we
present a selection of notable actors that are active (albeit to varying
extents) in international degrowth networks, displayed in relation to
the conference they emerged from/around. Importantly, the table
does not suggest a specic sequence of causality.Some of the groups
existed prior to their respective conference or were set up to organise
it, while others emerged as outcomes of the conferences. It also must
be acknowledged that the “international” degrowth conferences have
so far reected closely degrowth’s European-centred development,
with only two conferences to date taking place on other continents:
one in Montreal, Canada in , and one in Mexico City, Mexico,
in .
Year Conference location Groups/organisations/
initiatives
Websites
Paris, France Research and Degrowth degrowth.org
Barcelona, Spain Research and Degrowth degrowth.org
Montreal, Canada Mouvement Québécois pour
une décroissance conviviale, now
transformed into Décroissance
conviviale au Québec
decroissance.qc.ca/
facebook.com/groups/
decroissanceconvivialeQC
Venice, Italy La decrescita, MDF decrescita.it
decrescitafelice.it
Leipzig, Germany Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie,
Forderverein Wachstumswende
konzeptwerk–neue–
oekonomie.org
wachstumswende.org/
verein.htm
Budapest, Hungary Cargomania, Ena banda,
Institute for Political Ecology
cargonomia.hu
enabanda.si
ipe.hr
Malmö, Sweden Institute for Degrowth Studies degrowth.se
Mexico City, Mexico Descrecimiento Mexico,
Ecomunidades
descrecimiento.org
Vienna, Austria Degrowth Vienna Association degrowthvienna.org
Manchester, UK e University of Manchester,
Steady-State Manchester
steadystatemanchester.net
e Hague, Netherlands Ontgroei, International Institute
of Social Studies (ISS)
degrowth.nl
ontgroei.degrowth.net
iss.nl
Table 5.1.: International Conferences and the groups or organisations associated
Beyond those degrowth actors linked closely to conferences, a
selection of further groups active within international degrowth
networks is displayed in Table .. is is a non-exhaustive list,
considering the evolving character of the networks and the limits of
our knowledge. Because of its international scope, this list does not
involve the many groups active at national and regional levels (for
those, see sections “map” and “regional groups” on degrowth.info).
Name Description Website/Contact
Support Group Ocial promoter of international
conferences composed of organisers
of the previous conferences
Degrowth movement Connects people active in local
degrowth groups and people
engaged in international working
groups
[email protected]wth.net
Feminisms and
Degrowth Alliance
(FaDA)
Academic/activist network [email protected]
Latin American
Degrowth Forum
Self-organised online forums www.centrosocioambiental.cl/
iniciativas
Degrowth.net Networking platform www.degrowth.net
Degrowth World Open mailing list Degrowth-world-subscribre@lists.
riseup.net
Degrowth.info Web portal run by an international
volunteer group
[email protected], www.
degrowth.info
Table 5.2.: Other groups and relevant actors within international degrowth
networks
While detailed descriptions of each of these actors and their
respective strategies go beyond the scope of this chapter (and
our knowledge), we will briey reect on a few of those listed
in Table .. e Support Group is the ocial promoter of the
International Conferences and is composed of representatives of
the Local Organising Committees of the previous international
conferences (Degrowth.info d). Its primary aim is to facilitate
the organisation of future international degrowth conferences, and
thereby the advancement and promotion of degrowth, both as a
concept and as a movement. e Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance
(FaDA) was launched at the Budapest International Degrowth
Conference () – it is an inclusive network of academics, activists,
and practitioners that aims to foster dialogue between feminists and
degrowth proponents, and integrate gender analysis and ideas into
degrowth activism and scholarship (Degrowth.info e). Our own
collective, degrowth.info, has its roots in the
Leipzig conference, and
some members of our collective have been involved in the Local
Organising Committees of the degrowth conferences in Vienna
() and in e Hague (). As already mentioned above, we see
our contribution mostly in the provisioning of degrowth information
and resources, as well as serving as a platform for bringing together
the wider degrowth networks. Clearly, even the groups which are
not directly linked to the organisation of any particular international
degrowth conference (those listed in Table ..) are nevertheless, in
one way or another, closely tied to these conferences. Hence our
claim of the central role that the international degrowth conferences
play in degrowth’s strategic orientations.
Additional to groups such as those listed in the tables,
there are also several open mailing lists that act as nodes in
degrowth networks. e “degrowth movement” mailing list, for
example, focuses on connecting activists, particularly around the
annual Global Degrowth Day (Degrowth.info b), but is also used
to organise the movement’s assemblies: in-person meetings dedicated
to organising the degrowth movement beyond academia, which
coincide with the international conferences. Ahead of the Malmö
conference in , the movement assembly gathered in Christiania,
Copenhagen, and established several international working groups
(also called nodes), that were meant to foster the connections
between degrowthers around the world on interests such as activists
and practitioners, research, external and internal communications,
artists and designers (see Degrowth.info c). roughout the
pandemic, we perceived little traction within these nodes and no
concrete strategy beyond the fact of being in contact. is might
change after the assembly that took place before the conference in
e Hague in August , where some members of the degrowth.
info collective proposed the creation of a coordination or facilitation
body (terminology is being discussed). is idea is presently up for
debate, and the assembly concluded with the intention of meeting
more regularly.
Dynamics and structure of international degrowth networks
We have described degrowth actors as hard to pin down because of
the intangible nature of the networks, which exist through diverse
and often informal connections, without an overarching structureof
communication, coordination or cooperation. e Support
Group seems to be commonly perceived as being at the core of the
degrowth networks, although it is not intended – or willing – to
have an overarching coordinating role beyond the conferences. e
ambiguity of this position lies in the fact that we have described
before: so far degrowth’s development has been academically centred,
following a strategy based on the organisation of international
conferences. erefore the Support Group, albeit as a non-central
body, does control the most visible and substantial strategy within
degrowth networks and has a de facto leadership position.
Keeping the network diuse has often been perceived as a way
of maintaining decentralisation – a core value of degrowth – and
some have feared that pursuing greater structure might wither the
diversity of degrowth actors and lead to hierarchical dynamics.
Nonetheless, in recent years some eorts were made to establish a
more overarching structure and coordination, as is the case with the
international degrowth “movement assembly” we mentioned before.
Yet, the fundamentally unstructured character of the degrowth
networks has largely prevailed. is means that emerging initiatives
sprout spontaneously and self-dene as degrowth actors. Two recent
examples are the Latin American degrowth forum which brought
people together to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience to
reect on what degrowth means in the Latin American context
(Arahuetés et al. ), and the “New Roots” open letter (Barlow
et al. ) written by a group of self-organised degrowthers to
highlight the failures of current economies in responding to the
COVID- crisis, subsequently signed by over , people and
organisations and translated into languages.
While it is important to celebrate and encourage the spontaneity
and autonomy of such initiatives, the lack of structured
communication and coordination also means that a lot of energy
is lost in setting up each of these activities. Similarly to the global
nancial crisis in , when the degrowth movement spoke out
to say “this recession is not our degrowth”, the “New Roots” open
letter argued that the slowdown triggered by the pandemic was
also not our degrowth. But despite all the increasing interest in the
concept of degrowth since, the degrowth networks did not seem
more prepared and organised to respond to a crisis in than they
were in . Connections, strategies, working groups, mailing lists
and more had to be created on the spot. With poor communication
across degrowth actors, similar statements were written many times
by dierent people in dierent places (to name a few: degrowth.
info ; Chassagne ; Kallis et al. ), and there was little
reection on how to be inclusive, whose voices get the most visibility,
and what decision-making processes to use.
When we do not pay attention to such dynamics and we organise
hastily – with limited existing structures to rely on – it is easy to end
up subconsciously replicating patterns of exclusion, dominance and
patriarchy. We connect with those that we are already in contact with
and we refer and give voice to those who already occupy privileged
and high-prole positions – often meaning white European middle-
aged cis men.
e meetings of the “nodes” or the “New Roots” open letter,
which involved a predominantly white Western demographic, are
examples of activities that must prompt reection on the degree
to which engaging actively in the international degrowth networks
demands a privileged position. Several requirements for participation
came together in this instance to create barriers to entry: free time
during European daytime hours, a computer or smartphone with a
decent internet connection, and contacts with meeting organisers
or being up-to-date with information owing through international
degrowth networks. Another crucial point is that the vast majority
of degrowth organising is done on a voluntary basis, which makes
it less accessible to those with little nancial security. While the
international degrowth networks aim to be decentralised and non-
hierarchical, the reality is then a lot messier. We have witnessed little
collective reection on these important points and hence there are no
real strategies for inclusion.
In emergency situations, considerations of how to create
safe spaces and non-hierarchical, decolonial, anti-patriarchal,
participative structures are easily lost. Creating such dynamics
requires more considered processes contingent on unlearning and
deconstructing internal biases. Ever since the creation of degrowth.
info’s international team in , we have been working on our
internal dynamics and organisational structure. In our operation,
we strive to bring to life the kinds of collective processes we would
like to see proliferated throughout society more broadly: consensus
decision-making mechanisms, transparent processes and horizontal
structures. ese kinds of democratic and inclusive structures
could be nurtured throughout the wider international degrowth
networks,if there is the will to devote time and energies to this task.
ey will not simply appear by themselves.
To ensure that we create a movement that embodies the values
that we care about in degrowth and nourishes dynamics that make
every degrowther feel included, we need to be more intentional in
our actions. Establishing this greater intentionality will require better
communication across and between degrowth networks. is raises
another downside of the current diuse and uncoordinated nature
of the networks: the absence of dedicated structures through which
to engage in dialogue. is hinders not only communication and
strategising within degrowth networks, but also coalition building
with other movements and actors.
Whilst most degrowthers probably agree on the principle that
the networks remain decentralised, there is a dierence between
being centralised and being better coordinated, whilst still allowing
for the spontaneous emergence of local groups and being respectful
of autonomy. It is our understanding that the pitfalls of an
unstructured, strategically vague, and improvised way of organising
are now outweighing the benets and hindering the further
ourishing of degrowth networks by unintentionally reproducing
detrimental dynamics. To put it dierently, elements of greater
autonomy that could beprovided by this laissez-faire approach are –
in our experience – often being obscured by unhealthy reproductions
of hegemonic structures that need to be intentionally countered.
Next, we move the focus from internal dynamics within the
degrowth movements to questions of its wider strategies for
transformation. Finally, we outline a proposal for a Degrowth
International, which would incorporate both intentional internal
dynamics described above and the strategic direction we now present.
Strategy as a consideration in degrowth
As mentioned earlier, the issue of strategy has been present in
degrowth debates from the very early days of the movement’s
emergence at the beginning of the
st
century. By way of example,
we highlight one prominent, polemical, and controversial question
with regards to degrowth’s strategic orientation – the issue of how
to engage with existing structures of the nation-state. is question
has been (and is being) debated throughout degrowth’s short history,
particularly so in the Francophone degrowth literature, and more
recently in the English one as well (for an overview of this debate, as
well as a particular position within it, see D’Alisa and Kallis ).
However, notwithstanding all of the debates that in one way or
another pertain to degrowth’s strategic orientation, we point to two
very recent processes that have, in our view, centred the issue of
strategy as a whole on the degrowth agenda.
First, from January to October , degrowth.info
coordinated and published a ten-part blog series focusing specically
on the question of strategy in degrowth debates (Barlow ). e
series emerged from a sense amongst members of the degrowth.info
collective that considerations of strategy, or the how of bringing
about degrowth-oriented transformations of society, had so far not
been subject to systematic and substantive debate at a movement-
wide level. e strategy series thus aimed to foreground such
discussions and provide an initial forum to address degrowth’s lack of
clarity around strategy, as well as lingering tensions around dierent
strategic perspectives within the networks.
e enthusiastic response to the blog series at degrowth.info
provided evidence that concerns around the lack of debate on
strategy were shared throughout much of the wider degrowth
networks. It became clear across many of the contributions to
the series that there existed a large appetite for more concentrated
and systematic consideration of strategies, in order to enhance the
capacities of the degrowth networks to eect material societal
change. One notable contribution on this point came from Panos
Petridis (), who argued the need to develop a means for
evaluating dierent degrowth strategies for their emancipatory
potential, and that this could help address tensions within the
degrowth networks between those advocating more top-down and
bottom-up strategies respectively (see Chapter ).
Building on Petridis’ arguments, Ekaterina Chertkovskaya’s ()
article in the series considered how the sociologist Erik Olin Wright’s
framework of anti-capitalist political strategies could shape degrowth
thinking around strategies for social-ecological transformation.
Chertkovskaya argued that – while intertwining multiple strategic
approaches – degrowthers should give particular emphasis to
strategies that build power outside the capitalist system, and approach
with caution those that seek reform within existing systems and can
thus end up stabilising the status quo (see Chapter ).
Across the wide-ranging contributions, a key point revealed by the
series was the perceived importance of structures and mechanisms
that can facilitate the discussion, evaluation and coordination of
dierent strategies for degrowth transformations. Such movement-
level structures have so far been lacking in degrowth networks. It
should be noted, however, that the “movement assemblies” described
above, facilitated by the Support Group, have tried to move precisely
in the direction of building more coherent organisational structures
for the movement as a whole.
is issue also became a point of lively discussion at the
(online) Vienna conference on degrowth and strategy. Following
many conversations within the degrowth.info collective and wider
degrowth networks, one of our members proposed the establishment
of a Degrowth International during the panel “Advancing a Degrowth
Agenda in the Corona Crisis” (Rilović ; see also Asara ).
Envisaged as a more dened and transparent overarching structure
for global degrowth networks (perhaps taking the form of
decentralised local chapters that feed delegates into national and
international assemblies), such a Degrowth International represents
one possible means for facilitating the more focused consideration
and coordination of transformative strategies that many degrowthers
are increasingly recognising as necessary.
It remains to be seen, however, whether a critical mass of the
degrowth community desires such a development. Some will prefer
to retain degrowth’s current centre of gravity in academia. In this
case, the predominant strategic orientation is to inuence the actions
of policy-makers and grassroots activists through degrowth research
and writing, and so a more concentrated consideration of strategy
may be deemed unnecessary.
Alternatively, degrowth networks could choose to pursue pathways
oriented to social movements, which could themselves take
various forms. On the one hand, degrowth networks could seek to
proliferate degrowth as a frame for action, bringing in ever more
people and projects to take action under the degrowth banner. is
would require expanding considerations of strategy, in terms of how
to build the size of the degrowth networks and which actions should
be taken in the name of degrowth. Alternatively, it could be accepted
that the degrowth banner remains relatively niche whilst the
movement carves out a more agile approach, seeking to connect with
and inuence the direction of more high prole social movements
and political projects (e.g., Extinction Rebellion, Climate Justice,
Green New Deal(s)). Considerations of strategy are again vital in
this pathway, in terms of deliberating which movements, projects
and institutions degrowth should seek to inuence and how in
order to further its ultimate aim of social-ecological transformation.
Accordingly, if the degrowth community wishes to solidify itself in
a social movement form (on top of its academic stream), something
akin to a Degrowth International would undoubtedly be required.
In the next section, we outline some key considerations that the
construction of a Degrowth International would necessitate.
A Degrowth International
If a Degrowth International were to be developed, one of its primary
objectives would be to facilitate eective communication and
strategising amongst far-spread degrowth actors and networks.
Importantly, as argued above, this communication would need to be
conscious of and seek to address biases and power dynamics which
exist in society at large and also in progressive social movements. As
we have laid out in this contribution, thinking intentionally about
strategy and organisation in degrowth networks is not only desirable
but required, if we are to avoid the perpetuation of patriarchal,
colonial and hierarchical dynamics within our discursive practices
and organisational structures.
As a point of departure for this emerging conversation around
the idea of a Degrowth International, we oer a few key points of
consideration:
. A Degrowth International can provide the structures necessary
for the degrowth community to communicate, co-create
multi-scalar strategies, understand each other’s strategies,
set priorities for the networks, and address tensions as they
emerge. e extent of decision-making powers granted to such
structures, or whether they would simply act as a forum for
communication, however, is something that must be debated.
. Acosta and Brand () have explained that economies
beyond the growth imaginary require dierent characteristics
for Global South and Global North countries. erefore,
dierent degrowth strategies need to be debated and
prioritised as appropriate for dierent contexts. ere is
a real danger that social-ecological transformations in the
Global North could perpetuate colonial and extractivist
relations with the Global South. Some authors already
point to an intensication of mining for lithium in Latin
American countries as the race to oer electric cars and
lower-carbon mobility options become more prevalent in
Europe, China and the US (Götze ). As such, even if
successfully inuenced by degrowth thinking, a Green New
Deal in Europe could mean worse living conditions for
Global South communities (Zografos and Robbins ).
erefore, a Degrowth International would need to include
dierent actors from the Global South aligned with degrowth
principles, even if they do not explicitly label themselves
“degrowth” movements, in order to move beyond the current
Eurocentrism of degrowth debates. ere is a correspondence
between degrowth and post-extractivist ideals and notions of
the pluriverse
12
(Kothari et al. ). A Degrowth International
should strive to engage in discussions and actions that not
only consider problems of post-industrialisation, but also more
sustainable modes of living that do not mimic a minimalist
version of Western/Northern lifestyles.
. A Degrowth International, if created, could fall into the trap
of containing an over-representation of academia. is could
deepen our community’s current asymmetry and reinforce
(whether intentionally or not) an academic focus. A concerted
eort would need to be made to balance the representation of
academic with non-academic voices, strategic perspectives and
lived experiences.
. We stress that intentionality is a crucial concept to keep in
mind if the degrowth networks – and a possible Degrowth
International – are to counter dominant power structures
within the behaviours and discourse of actors. e
predominance of cis-gender, white, and Western voices is still
a reality in the academically-centred degrowth community.
A Degrowth International would need to be carefully and
conscientiously constructed in order to pregure the more just
and egalitarian degrowth society we wish to create.
Conclusion
After reviewing the current landscape of actors in the international
degrowth networks and laying out the lack of strategic clarity, we
have argued that the creation of a Degrowth International would be
benecial, and must be centred on an intentional eort to unlearn
patriarchal and hierarchical patterns of behaviour and organisation.
We have also raised questions of inclusion, privilege and,
12 e pluriverse is a term that evokes a deep diversity of world-views. It refers to possible
co-existence of diverse ontologies, epistemologies and non-Western approaches. It was
rst described by the Zapatista movement (EZLN 1996) as a liberating alternative to the
homogenizing discourse of western capitalist development.
thresholds for participation in the degrowth movement. Underlying
the analysis and proposals detailed here, our core interest is: how can
we generate truly transformative degrowth networks and strategies
that are radical, decolonial, inclusive, and embody all the other
dynamics we want to see in our societies at large, where autonomy
is respected and cherished but communication and collaboration are
also strong?
We envision a Degrowth International as a global degrowth
network that would provide dedicated structures for all smaller-
scale degrowth networks to connect together and collaborate around
strategies for social-ecological transformation and would help
participants to consciously and intentionally unlearn internal biases.
A Degrowth International would bring to life a diverse global network
of networks through creative collaborationand communication ows
that would help to nourish and sustain a pluriverse of movements
and actors striving for a good life for all.
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Chapter :
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements
By Corinna Burkhart, Tonny Nowshin, Matthias Schmelzer and
Nina Treu
“Who shut shit down? We shut shit down!” is slogan has become
a common cry amongst activists doing direct actions of civil
disobedience, blocking fossil infrastructures such as lignite mines,
gas terminals, or the construction of new highways. ese actions,
which Naomi Klein () called “blockadia”, are not only eective
in raising awareness around issues of climate justice but have helped
to actually shut down fossil infrastructure or eectively prevented
the construction of new projects. In this chapter, we discuss what
degrowth can learn from existing social-ecological movements – such
as those who engage in direct actions around climate justice – and
their strategies for systemic change. Similarly, we delve into how
degrowth should orient strategically.
We understand degrowth as an emerging social movement that
overlaps with proposals for systemic change such as alter-globalisation
and climate justice, the commons and Transition Towns – a mosaic
of initiatives for social-ecological transformation. Degrowth is
one strategic vantage point for movements that explicitly aim at a
society and economy beyond growth, industrialism and capitalism –
not because it is or should be a key term for all movements in the
mosaic, but because degrowth symbolises the most radical rejection
of the eco-modernist mainstream of growth-centredness, extractivism,
and industrialism. Similarly, degrowth has in recent years developed
into a framework for many movements, initiatives, and projects that
provides a set of theories, arguments, and visions that give meaning to
pregurative “nowtopias” (for more on this, c.f. Burkhart et al. ,
Schmelzer et al. ).
In the following, we will discuss what the degrowth movement
in the narrow sense – the community of activists, scholars,
practitioners, and politicians involved in degrowth-related projects
– can learn from other social-ecological movements that are
part of the mosaic in terms of strategising. In focusing on those
movements with already existing links to degrowth as explored
in Degrowth in Movement(s) (Burkhart et al. ), we discuss the
following questions: Which strategies do other movements employ
to reach their goals and to expand their movements? To what degree
should the degrowth movement consider these? (How) should the
degrowth movement act strategically towards related social-ecological
movements?
We argue that in thinking through strategies for the
transformation of the current economic organisation to a degrowth
society, there is much to learn from ongoing struggles and other
social-ecological movements. We highlight four dierent strategies,
which can be found within the larger spectrum of movements of
this emerging mosaic of alternatives: Opposing, communicating,
reforming, and practising. e degrowth community, we argue,
should embrace, actively relate to, and support all these strategies
and a diversity of strategic actions.
Strategies within the mosaic of alternatives
e question of whether degrowth is itself a social movement, an
interpretative frame for movements, or whether it is more adequate
to talk of the degrowth spectrum is much debated (Demaria et al.
; Eversberg and Schmelzer ). However, one thing is certain:
the degrowth community, with its critiques, proposals, and practices,
has diverse intellectual, social, and political links to many other
social movements (Burkhart et al. ).
Degrowth can learn from the various strategies these social-
ecological movements employ. Building on the many examples
discussed in Degrowth in Movement(s) (Burkhart et al. ),
ranging from the alter-globalisation or climate justice movements
to movements and alternatives such as the commons, Buen Vivir,
food sovereignty, non-prot cooperatives, the care revolution,
free software, basic income, or Transition Towns, four strategies
emerge as particularly relevant. In discussing these, we provide
examples of movements that are particularly strong with regard to
specic strategies, while keeping in mind that this is an idealised
systematisation and, in reality, strategies often overlap. Indeed,
the fact that so many movements deploy a mix of strategies
might already be an indication of the importance of combining
dierent strategic approaches for a successful interaction with – or
confrontation of – the status quo.
Our typology builds on the work of sociologist Erik Olin Wright,
which we adapted and built on for this book chapter. We distinguish
between four strategies: Opposing (in Wright’s terms: ruptural
strategies), reforming (symbiotic strategies), practising (interstitial
strategies), and believe it is key to also discuss communicating as a
fourth strategy (for more on this, see Wright ; Chapter , for
an adaptation to degrowth strategies, see Schmelzer et al. ). e
four categories identied can be further regarded as a development of
three strategies that appear in earlier degrowth publications, namely:
oppositional activism, the building of alternatives, and political
proposals (see for example Demaria et al. ).
Oppositional strategies create counter-hegemonic power through
various forms of public mobilizations and actions. ese include
protests, demonstrations, strikes, direct action, civil disobedience,
blockades, ash-mobs, occupations, or even insurrectionary tactics of
riots and the demolition or sabotage of property. In recognising that
not all of these actions are legal, it is key to understand that almost
all the rights movements have struggled for throughout modern
history, including the end of colonialism, women’s and workers’
rights were also achieved by acts of resistance and civil disobedience
(Federici ; Harman ).
Opposing Communicating Reforming Practising
Key actors
Activists, citizens Academics, NGOs,
journalists, activists
Parties, NGOs,
thinktanks
Practitioners,
activists
What it is
about
Opposing
destruction,
creating counter-
hegemonic power
Changing
paradigms, creating
narratives of
transformation,
connecting topics
and movements
Transforming
institutions and
changing rules
Building alternative
structures, creating
post-capitalist
nowtopias
Activities
Demonstrations,
strikes, direct
action, civil
disobedience,
blockades, riots,
sabotage
Research,
media articles,
conferences and
public events,
public statements
Developing
and promoting
(radical) reforms,
lobbying
Creating spaces,
alternative
infrastructure,
support networks
Typical
movements
Climate justice,
refugee movement,
care revolution,
People’s Global
Action, artivism
Commons,
demonetise, the
reception of Buen
Vivir in Europe,
decolonise the
climate movement,
decolonial
degrowth, post-
development
Basic income,
environmental
and global justice
NGOs, trade
unions
Solidarity economy,
Transition Towns,
urban gardening,
free software
movement, open
workshops
Strengths
Creating strong
symbols, building
up power from
below
Motivating people,
building alliances,
shaping narratives
and changing
cultures inside
and outside of
movement spaces
Incremental
steps towards
social-ecological
transformation,
broad alliances
between state
and civil society
organisations,
enshrining social-
ecological thought
in law
Open and
welcoming,
experimenting
with alternatives,
learning dierent
imaginaries,
independence
Limits
Diculties
of including
visionary politics
and alternatives,
experiences of
(state) repression
Mainly discursive,
lack of actors
to ght for and
implement
narratives
Danger of
appellative politics
to legitimise
power, creation
of false solutions,
dependence on
hegemonic power
Dicult to connect
with wider struggles
and movements
Table 6.1.: Four strategic approaches of social movements
e following three examples illustrate such oppositional strategies
or “blockadia” actions where people use their bodies in acts of
civil disobedience (Klein ). First, in Germany, the degrowth
movement held several summer schools at climate camps, in which
hundreds of participants discussed degrowth before joining an Ende
Gelände action and, by entering a lignite coal mine, directly stopped
the burning of coal at Europe’s largest site of emissions. Second,
the refugee movement has not only created a network of solidarity
throughout European cities, but, in the year in particular, the
thousands of people that collectively entered Europe through the
Balkans have eectively disrupted the border regime of Fortress
Europe. ird, the M movement in Spain set an example with
massive occupations of public spaces as a reaction to the nancial
crisis from onward. It created autonomous structures that
demonstrated what real democracy could look like and that life
beyond competition and commodication was possible.
Oppositional strategies can be highly eective: a recent study
has shown that Indigenous campaigns of resistance against fossil
fuel expansion across what is currently called Canada and the
United States of America, which included militant actions, civil
disobedience, and sabotage, have eectively stopped or delayed
greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least of annual U.S.
and Canadian emissions (Indigenous Environment Network and
Oil Change International ). Often, oppositional strategies create
powerful symbols that dene entire eras, motivate and transform
people, and shift existing power relations in society, thus making
things possible that hitherto seemed unachievable. A key limit of
oppositional strategies is the diculty of including visionary politics
and alternatives in the struggles, which often focus on opposing
the destruction of something rather than imagining or creating
something new, even as they do often contain a utopian element.
Actions tend to take a lot of energy and time and are afterwards
often confronted with state repression that targets systemically
marginalised and racialised groups in particular. us, there are
barriers to entry for these actions, which renders the creation of
long-term structures dicult.
Communication strategies are central to many academics,
professionals in non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
journalists, and activists that engage with and in social movements.
eir aim is to change paradigms and to create narratives of
transformation. is includes, among many others, activities such
as research that explains, politicises, and frames key issues, and the
writing of media articles or public statements to create publicity
and outreach. It further entails the organisation of workshops,
conferences, and public events to engage with the public, to
strategise within the movement, or to involve politicians. e
degrowth community has – up until now – centred its strategic
energy around communication. It has pursued basically all of the
actions that fall into the category of communication: an immense
output in terms of research and academic teaching; growing
visibility in the public discourse through statements such as the
“Open Letter: Re-imagining the Future After e Corona Crisis”;
(popular) scientic books and media articles; a considerable number
of workshops and lectures; dozens of summer schools and large
international conferences that often sparked new networks among
social-ecological initiatives and some mobilisations (Kallis et al. ;
Eversberg and Schmelzer ; degrowth.info ).
Degrowth has also contributed to an ongoing process of undermining
the hegemony of growth in growing segments of related social
movements, academic debates, and new fragments of society, by framing
green growth as an oxymoron and presenting degrowth as a viable
alternative (Hickel ). In recent years, activists have also included
decolonial narratives in the degrowth framework and have grown
awareness related to the importance of intersectional justice in degrowth
visions (Tyberg ). However, this has only just begun and much
still needs to be done. Many other movements have demonstrated the
power of communicative strategies: the global commons movement, for
example, has created a collective narrative and framing for the thousands
of historical and currently ongoing institutions and communities that
organise economies based on bottom-up non-market relationships,
linking local practices with academic research and political demands
(Bollier and Helfrich ). Further, the post-development movement
has contributed to the critique of the notion of “development.” rough
on-the-ground knowledge generation, publications, communication
strategies, and international networking, it laid the ground for and
inspired many other social movements (Burkhart et al. ; Escobar
, Hickel ; Kothari et al. ).
Communicative strategies can be very powerful in motivating
people by creating a narrative that clearly articulates the problems,
provides solutions, and shows pathways for transforming society. A
good speech, a well-articulated demand, a powerful political slogan
– all of these can make a signicant dierence, in particular, if they
are framed in a way that people perceive them as a new common
sense, as can be seen throughout the history of social movements.
Recent examples for this are the actions and words of youth climate
activist Greta unberg and the Fridays for Future movements,
which helped put the climate crisis on the political agenda (Fopp
et al. ). However, standing on their own, communication
strategies lack the actors and the power to ght for and implement
change. ey are, so to speak, the underlying work of ploughing and
fertilising the soil, on which social movements grow, and with the
help of which alliances and counter-hegemonic power can emerge.
Reforming politics and institutions is the key strategic terrain of
politicians and professionals in NGOs that work to change the rules
of societies and their systems. Strategic actions to achieve reforms
could include developing and promoting laws and legal reforms,
lobbying politicians and bureaucrats to adopt these laws, informing
the public about reform initiatives to create a constituency, starting
petitions to raise awareness, or even joining or creating parties. It is
important to highlight that degrowth actors do not aim at reforming
society, but at a structural and systemic change. at is why
degrowth proposals are often interpreted as “non-reformist reforms”
(André Gorz) or “revolutionary realpolitik” (Rosa Luxemburg) –
commonsensical demands that would transform the growth-based
capitalist system (for more on this, see Schmelzer et al. ).
Still, promoting key degrowth political demands such as basic and
maximum income, a cap on resource use, or radical working time
reductions constitute central steps on the path towards a degrowth
society.
Examples of movements that focus on such reforms are the global
basic income movement, which uses a diversity of strategic actions,
ranging from petitions to local experiments and demonstrations.
A dierent example would be environmental and global justice
NGOs that lobby around local, national, and international political
institutions. An interesting case is trade unions, which historically
have started mainly through oppositional strategies, but now – as
discussed in one contribution in Degrowth in Movement(s) – largely
focus on the reform strategy of changing laws. As a social movement
strategy, reforms are important insofar as they can improve concrete
situations and lives through incremental but legally secured change
that cements what movements have been ghting for, and because
reforms can generalise certain rights and practices that had hitherto
only existed in alternative niches (or what Erik Olin Wright referred
to as interstitial modes of transformation, see Chapter ) to the
entire society. A danger and limit of this strategy is that political
action that strongly appeals to governments tends to legitimise
power. is comes often with the problematic understanding that
“demanding” solutions from politicians is in itself enough to achieve
them (which in the case of degrowth demands is clearly illusionary)
and tends to lead to supercial reforms that function only as
symptomatic treatment and maintain the status quo.
Practice or pregurative strategies through which practitioners
and activists create post-capitalist nowtopias in the here and now
seek to experiment with new institutions, infrastructures, or forms
of organisation. ey are laboratories in which new social practices
are intentionally developed, tried out, and practised. ey emerge
within and despite the old system and pregure post-capitalist
relations on a small scale (for more, see Wright ; Schmelzer et al.
; Carlsson ; and also see Part II in this volume). Temporary
interstitial practices such as the degrowth summer schools or other
political camps around the world oer people an experience of a
communal, self-determined and sucient lifestyle through collective
self-organisation, shared care work, and the use of, for example,
exclusively renewable energies and compost toilets. More important,
still, are the more permanent movements that employ pregurative
strategies: solidarity economy, Transition Towns, urban gardening,
the free software movement, open workshops and repair cafes,
community-supported agriculture, alternative media, collective
kitchens and food recuperation, community housing projects and
squats, occupations, municipal energy projects, time banks or
regional currencies. Such practices that engage in bottom-up social
change are particularly present in the discussion on degrowth.
Reference is often made to them to show that the principles of a
degrowth society are already being implemented on a small scale
today. In providing an interpretative frame, degrowth has, one could
argue, contributed in recent years to advancing the visibility and
politicisation of these practices.
One strength of many of these initiatives is a relatively low
threshold for participation. Gardening with others in the
neighbourhood attracts many and does not necessarily require
substantial political knowledge. Citizens with various backgrounds,
who might otherwise not meet, get together, strengthen the
local community, and practice alternatives to a market economy.
Community organising and small-scale agriculture are practised
and normalised. However, some of these have comparatively high
thresholds for participation, as projects can be time-intensive and
dicult to make compatible with, for example, care responsibilities.
Since these projects often do not involve any political engagement
or commitment, they risk remaining focused on their local
situation and do not connect to wider struggles, nor do participants
necessarily politicise their practices.
What should the degrowth movement do?
After presenting these four groups of strategies, we will discuss
how the degrowth movement in the narrow sense should consider
these. As stated above, we would like to stress again that we see a
combination of strategies as the best way forward. e question is,
then, how the degrowth community can widen their repertoire and
combine dierent strategic approaches. e degrowth community
is experienced in communication, but less involved in opposing,
reforming, and practising. We suggest that the degrowth movement
build on its strengths and collaborate with other social-ecological
movements and initiatives that have dierent foci and areas of
expertise. To be more concrete, we make the case for three tasks for
the degrowth movement: rstly, to intervene in ongoing debates,
struggles, and conicts; secondly, to provide visions and narratives
that are concrete; and thirdly, to actively reect, change attitudes,
and act towards intersectional justice.
Intervene into ongoing debates, struggles, and conicts
e idea of intervening in ongoing debates, struggles, and conicts
serves the aim of bringing degrowth perspectives into new arenas
and learning from the ideas and strategies of existing struggles. One
example mentioned earlier is the integration of degrowth summer
schools into climate camps. Here we have a concrete struggle
(climate justice), a local conict (displacement of citizens or the
loss of a forest), direct action (Ende Gelände), and a camp where
all is linked to degrowth ideas that are discussed, developed, and
practised. Communicating, opposing, and practising come together
and create various outcomes, which generate an opportunity for
communication to the wider public, politicisation, and networking.
Another example for connecting dierent strategies and a concrete
struggle to degrowth were the M protests in Spain mentioned
earlier. Here, citizens occupied squares, organised protests and
direct action, while trying out direct democracy. e protests were
further joined and supported by small local projects that were
promoting alternatives to capitalism and could gain momentum
from the protests. Others active in the protests followed a reform
strategy by joining established political institutions and later entering
parliament. roughout the protests, degrowth ideas informed
political action and organisation – and the M protest in turn
inspired the further development of degrowth ideas and practice (see
the chapter by Eduard Nus in Burkhart et al. ).
What do we suggest for the near future? In a post-lockdown world,
we hope to see the degrowth community continue to intervene in
climate justice struggles, in particular in the Fridays for Futures
movement, to connect with the refugee movement and social justice
struggles – of which there will be plenty as a result of the pandemic.
As the two examples above show, intervention in those and other
ongoing debates, struggles, and conicts provides a moment to make
degrowth ideas concrete and to develop them further in dialogue
with other experiences and realities.
Provide visions and narratives that are concrete
Degrowth has its strength in discussing and arguing for alternative
economies in an academic context and increasingly in public debates
around the future of economics and climate justice. Beyond that,
it is, however often a struggle to explain what degrowth really is
about. To make degrowth common sense, we need a language,
narratives, and visions that are concrete and easy to communicate.
is requires the pursuit of a well-thought-through communication
strategy. Engaging communication should be targeted at various
groups, including politicians who are potentially already close to
some degrowth ideas but still holding on to growth politics. One
example are the ten degrowth policy proposals published by Research
& Degrowth in (Research & Degrowth ), which were
directed to political left parties and concretely outline reforms that
would foster a degrowth economy, including a citizen debt audit, a
minimum and maximum income, and a green tax reform.
Aimed at a much wider audience is the project “Future for All”,
by Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie (Laboratory for a New Economy,
based in Leipzig, Germany) and many partners, in which some of
the authors of this chapter were involved. rough workshops
with visionary thinkers from academia, civil society, and social
movements, we developed and published ideas for a utopian society
in and ways to get there. “Future for All” includes degrowth
ideas but does not use the word and has a much brighter and more
inviting framing (Kuhnhenn et al. ). In contrast to the many
text-heavy and often abstract degrowth publications, this project
has made very concrete what everyday life could look like in
if degrowth proposals would be put to practice. e publication
aims at communicating in an accessible language with illustrations
and concrete scenarios, while also highlighting controversies and
struggles within diverse elds of action such as global justice,
inclusion, mobility, food, housing, and nances. ese visons and
narratives can serve as starting points for discussions led by the
degrowth movement in circles beyond academia.
If degrowth is to reach more people, it needs to use accessible
language and relatable visions. e communication of such concrete
visions and narratives needs to go beyond text and purely informing
formats such as documentaries, magazines, or popular science
publications. is could be art, ction, or theatre as well as hands-on
actions that are engaging, enabling, and inviting.
Develop an attitude and pursue actions towards intersectional justice
As the core of degrowth is built around criticising and reversing
oversized economies based on accumulation, oversized economies
sustained by a complex web of (neo)colonial and intersectionally
exploitative business, trade, and cultural dominance, it is
fundamental for the degrowth movement to actively include
intersectional justice in its agenda. e moral and ideological power
of the movement is weakened unless conscious commitments to anti-
racism, anti-patriarchy, and anti-classism become an inherent part
of its strategy, vision, and actions. Degrowth is about global justice,
and one of the main ways to ingrain this vision in the movement’s
thinking and narratives is to also take practical actions towards
working on internalised structural biases and building up political
power on intersectional issues. We see changes in recent years by
more and more scholars, activists, and organisers from the Global
South taking a degrowth position from a decolonial perspective,
and thus shaping the predominantly Northern degrowth discourse
towards a more inclusive vision (Tyberg ; Ituen ; Nowshin
). For the movement to reach the next level of its potential and
unfold more holistically, intersectional justice needs to become a
priority.
Conclusion
Degrowth – a movement in the making that is mainly academic and
has so far mostly focused on creating knowledge, shifting discourses,
and changing mind-sets – should learn from, embrace, and actively
relate to ongoing struggles of existing social-ecological movements.
As we have argued in this chapter, in doing so, the degrowth
community should use and support a diversity of strategies. We have
identied four core categories: opposing, communicating, reforming,
and practising.
While engaging with a sorting and labelling exercise, it becomes
obvious that in practice strategies are interconnected – often
employed simultaneously and deeply depending on one another. It is
often dicult to pinpoint where, for example, communicating ends
and reforming starts or when an action becomes a practice. us,
while categorising, it is important to remember that strategies are
contingent on one another.
e notion of a “mosaic” highlights the vision of building a
plural world, rooted in multiple struggles and with many dierent
strategies – composed of dierent forms of economies, living worlds,
and cultures, pollinating, interacting, and collaborating with each
other. To dierentiate it from the one-way future of capitalism and
economic growth, the various alternatives to economic growth have
recently been termed the “pluriverse” by a group of scholar-activists
from various continents (Kothari et al. ). We should combine
dierent strategies to build this pluriverse!
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Strategising with our eyes wide
open
Chapter :
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth
By Samantha Mailhot and Patricia E. Perkins
Introduction
Since growth-driven capitalist economic systems rely on and
exacerbate social inequities, uprooting and minimising those
inequities is an essential step towards degrowth. But this implies
much more than a binary replacement of growth-oriented systems by
their opposite. Social equity is the key to a degrowth transformation
for a range of reasons: political, theoretical, ontological, and ethical
perspectives are all motivations for prioritising social equity. To be
politically viable, degrowth movements must focus on supporting
alliances amongst all those who are alienated or excluded by
growth-driven systems due to their intersectional, discriminatory
exploitation: a diverse and socially united movement is a strong
movement. eoretically, since social equity is central to social
trust and wellbeing, degrowth governance processes also depend
on fairness (Büchs and Koch ). Ontologically, non-Western
understandings of relational collective sociality, pluriversity, and
inter-species reciprocity are helping to envision degrowth’s emergent
future potentials (Nirmal and Rocheleau ). And ethically, social
equity is a commonly recognised value and goal that instils hope and
common purpose, laying a rm foundation for degrowth. Inclusivity
and social equity are thus closely intertwined with degrowth; in
this chapter, we explore how they undergird ethical, astute, well-
grounded, and forward-oriented degrowth strategies.
In writing this chapter and discussing these interrelated
perspectives, we are aware of our privilege as white middle-class
cisgender women academics, living on stolen land in the territories
of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples in
Montreal and Toronto; our view is necessarily partial, and we hope
others will engage and enrich this discussion.
In the following section, we focus on the expansion of
discriminatory structures as the basis for systemic capitalist
exploitation, which, linked to colonialism, has led to appalling
levels of social inequity both within and between countries.
e third section looks at why and how degrowth is a pathway
for achieving greater social equity. e fourth and fth sections
advance suggestions for how degrowth scholars and activists might
more deeply engage with social equity as fundamental to their
transformative activism: alliance-building and commons are specic
strategies for the degrowth movement to advance social equity.
How do growth-oriented systems rely on and generate inequities?
Economic growth has led to an increase in the standard of living in
some nations, by enabling longer and healthier human lives at very
high levels of comfort (Victor , Folbre ). However, these
benets have come with many ecological costs – such as the adverse
eects of resource extraction, waste disposal, loss of species and
habitats – as well as social costs including poverty, social exclusion, the
breakdown of communities, alienation, crowding, crime (e.g., Victor
), and the exploitation of both productive and reproductive labour
(Salleh ). ese, and many other eects of relentless growth,
have been disproportionately divided on local and regional scales and
between countries, where economic growth in some places has largely
been dependent on de-development and oppression of others (Victor
). is exploitation links intersectionally to class, gender, origin,
clan, ethnicity, race, dis/ability, and nationality (Kallis , ).
Growth–related inequities are multiplying both within and among
countries, and they are enmeshed and unavoidable in growth-oriented
systems (e.g., Piketty , Wilkinson and Pickett , Stiglitz ).
Many degrowth scholars/activists centre their critique on illusions
regarding growth’s benets, as well as its social equity implications
(e.g., Kallis et al. , Gilmore , Gabriel and Bond ).
Industrial growth in Europe was dependent on elite accumulation
by forcefully privatising land and commons, denying the “peasants”
access to basic needs and forcing them to sell their labour cheaply
to survive (Hickel ). Marx () referred to this as “primitive
accumulation.” Class struggles were just part of the dierent forms
of intersectional discrimination that were produced; the drive for
accumulation also led to imperialism and racial discrimination.
Colonisation paved the way for greater growth, bringing more land,
resources, raw materials, and Indigenous slave labour to extraction
and production (e.g. Marx ). At the same time, unequally
distributed economic benets allowed Europeans to prey on others
and fuelled the expansion of the trans-Atlantic slave trade (e.g.
Folbre , ). Economic growth was quite literally built on
the backs of violently exploited peoples. Identifying “primitive
accumulation” as an ongoing process, Harvey (, ) describes
the credit system and nance capital as major levers of predation,
fraud, and thievery, and describes new mechanisms of “accumulation
by dispossession.” ese include, for example, the commodication
of nature and capital-intensive modes of agricultural production that
have led to the depletion of global environmental commons as well
as habitat destruction; the commodication of cultures, histories and
intellectual creativity; and the corporatisation and privatisation of
public assets (e.g. universities).
Gendered division of labour and exclusion also undergird growth-
based societies. As Mies () explains, for several centuries women
have been “externalised, declared to be outside civilised society,
pushed down, and thus made invisible as the underwater part of an
iceberg is invisible, yet constitutes the base of the whole” (). Wage
labour “took a distinctly gendered form, with women restricted to
the least remunerative jobs” (Folbre , ). e growth paradigm
has perpetuated gender inequality by “reinforcing dualisms and
devaluing care” (Dengler and Strunk ). Heteronormatively
framed gender roles have persisted through time and have reinforced
a binary logic where women still bear the brunt of domestic care
work (Craig ), making some women/mothers responsible for
both paid and unpaid work, and thus not fully available for paid
work (Dengler and Strunk ). Because the growth paradigm rests
on increasing GDP, it necessitates the valuation of wage labour over
unpaid labour.
Importantly, gender and all other inequities have an intersectional
dimension, meaning that they are “generally shaped by many factors
in diverse and mutually inuencing ways” (Hill Collins and Bilge
, ), such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, ability, and age.
e needs of African-American women were not addressed by anti-
racist social movements, second-wave white feminism, or unions
organising for workers’ rights in the s and s, since each
movement was solely focused on one category of analysis and action
(race, gender, or class, respectively). “Because African-American
women were simultaneously Black and female and workers, these
single-focus lenses on social inequality left little space to address
the complex social problems that they face(d)” (Hill Collins and
Bilge , ). Intersectionality was rst introduced as an analytical
concept by Black women (Crenshaw ). From husbands acting
as guardians or masters, to witch-hunts and torture of economically
and sexually independent women, to the expropriation and
exploitation of slave women/all women, to images of the “good
woman”, or woman as mother and housewife (to be maintained by a
male “breadwinner”) (Mies , Federici ), women’s struggles
against these inequities seem never-ending.
In fact, growth-induced inequities have intersectionally negative
impacts which exacerbate marginality for most people (Olofsson
et al. ) – and focus their outrage. Ecological harms related to
extraction, dispossession, and waste disposal in “sacrice zones”
spark environmental justice and land back movements (Hickel ,
Yellowhead Institute ). Unjust burdens on those providing
unpaid work, care, and physical and social reproduction lead to
gender justice, care economy and frontline worker movements.
Dierential burdens of policing and incarceration related to private
property, slavery and racism trigger prison abolition, defund the
police, Idle No More, and Black Lives Matter movements. Use of
immigrant labour for personal services, agriculture, dangerous work,
and environmental and social harms embodied in product imports
and exports between countries with weaker protections, also lead to
movements opposing the negative eects of growth across countries
and supply chains, along with divestment, tax harmonization,
immigration rights and other attempts to regulate nance/capital,
labour, and product movements internationally. Climate justice
movements focus on the dierential impacts of the growth-driven
climate crisis on marginalised groups and geographic regions
deprived of agency and means to address those impacts. Growth’s
failure to bring trickle-down benets for the Majority World, or
equitable distribution of wealth and living standards within the
Minority World, is a long-standing “development” deception that
continues to fuel resistance movements worldwide (Stiglitz ).
And, set apart by their degree of criminality and impunity, are
capitalism’s colonial legacies of land theft, genocidal violence, and
ongoing environmental and social destruction focused on Indigenous
peoples – which are opposed by their continuance, resurgence, and
leadership, with non-Indigenous supporters. All of these movements
can be understood politically, theoretically, ontologically, and/or
ethically – which oers ways of shaping alliances among them.
e cost of the inequities produced by growth is immeasurable,
and there is certainly the potential for common cause among those
aected, possibly leading to powerful political counterforces. e
next sections discuss related challenges and potentials.
Potentials and challenges of a social equity focus within degrowth
Among those who are generally left out and discontented with
various aspects of capitalist growth, degrowth may be able to spark
some recognition and solidarity, as a convenor of sorts. But as
Muradian () notes, degrowth is not an easy sell. e degrowth
community tends to be mostly white, well-educated, and middle
class (Muradian ), representing values, concerns and interests
that “create communication and emotional barriers for connecting
with disadvantaged populations in other parts of the world” ().
While degrowth draws from theoretical and activist traditions,
and ontologies of the Majority World (Hickel , Latouche
), it is sometimes presented as a concept developed in and for
the Minority World, with a tendency to recreate “longstanding
(neo-) colonial asymmetries by setting the agenda on what
ought to be done to solve problems of global relevance”, where
the Minority World establishes the norms, limits and strategies
for degrowth proposals (Dengler and Seebacher , ).
Some social and environmental justice groups feel that the term
“degrowth” is not appealing or does not match the demands of poor
and marginalised communities; that degrowth may not be taking
into account the multiculturality and pluriversality of dierent
countries; that degrowth is too anthropocentric; that degrowth
is not even widely known in the Majority World; that degrowth is
inherently Eurocentric (or Northern) in origin, so that it does not
provide much space for resistance from a decolonial perspective, and
puts forth a disconnected framework for those not living in rich,
high-consumption societies (Rodríguez-Labajos et al. , –).
An ethical standpoint for degrowth, therefore, focuses on the
tendency for existing power dierences and dominant ontological
standpoints to become reied even within resistance movements,
which then turn on themselves in a toxic cycle. People who are
culturally and ontologically alienated from and excluded by
capitalism are likely to be uninterested in engaging with growth –
or, possibly, with degrowth. Instead, their activism and resurgence
operate along dierent planes and relationships altogether. As
Indigenous climate scholar Kyle Whyte has explained in relation
to non-Indigenous Western climate justice, “in the absence of a
concern for addressing colonialism, climate justice advocates do not
really propose solutions … that are that much better for Indigenous
well-being than the proposed inaction of even the most strident
climate change deniers… Indigenous climate justice movements are
distinct in their putting the nexus of colonialism, capitalism and
industrialisation at the vanguard of their aspirations” (Whyte ,
).ose degrowth activists who are able to recognise shared ideas
and expand their conceptualisations and priorities may be able to
build relationships across ontological divides (Singh ).
Indigenous ontological understandings regarding value, “goodness”
or “wellth
” in human/society/nature relationships, as expressed
in terms like “buen vivir”, “sumak kawsay”, “suma qamaña” and
others, “displace the discussion of growth to that of social and
environmental fullment” (Gudynas , ). “Buen Vivir is only
possible within communities of extended or relational ontologies…
a fullled life can only be achieved by deep relationships within a
community” (Gudynas , ). is ontological understanding
thus expands the conception of degrowth in time, space, species-
relationships, and diversity/pluriversity-concepts that degrowth
activists and theorists are only beginning to explore (Richter ).
Cartesian and anthropocentric views of nature inherent to growth,
and present in some degrowth thinking, separate nature from society
and are anchored in Western ways of thinking (and colonising).
is is a root cause of the current ecological crisis and, according
to some authors, it may be perpetuated by the degrowth discourse
(Richter ) in an emergent process that is continually shaped by
ontological dierence (or the pluriverse; see Escobar ; Nirmal
and Rocheleau ).
Beyond ontological divides, another challenge for non-Indigenous
people who want to work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples
involves actively resisting rather than replicating colonial relations
(Davis ). Rather than trying to strategise and lead in decolonial
movements, this means supporting Indigenous struggles while also
ghting broad settler ignorance and complacency:
13 e term “wellth” means “well-being expressed as paid and unpaid activities aimed at social
and individual ourishing” (Mellor 2018, 125).
“(C)olonial settler actions, even when not intended as such,
can appear as greed for power and privilege, insulation
from conict or fear, and the freedom to completely ignore
problematic ‘others’ as well as the eects of individual actions.
Decolonisation, on any scale, cannot be motivated by an eort
to maintain as much comfort or privilege as possible; given
the nature of hierarchical oppression, confronting oppression
requires that some individuals within the hierarchy will have to
make signicant sacrices” (Barker , ).
Privileged degrowth activists must strive to understand the current
state of injustice(s) around them and their role in the systems that
perpetuate these injustices, as well as the unjust sacrices involved in
dismantling capitalism. ose seeking to build social equity-focused
alliances need to actively learn about and reect on the racism,
sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, ableism and so on that currently
exist locally and globally, their own privilege vis-à-vis these systems,
and how to dismantle them. From this new self-understanding they
can reach out to groups concentrating their political work on social
struggles without colonising these struggles, but rather in support of
them (Gobby ).
As dierent groups’ struggles are situated in dierent economic
and cultural contexts, dierences in narratives, motivations, and
strategies are almost inevitable (Burkhart et al. ). For example,
“moral frame of reference” gaps can arise when several movements
may all be seeking justice, but for dierent kinds of people ().
From a degrowth perspective, social equity-focused movements
may not see growth or capitalism as the main cause of the injustices
they are ghting, since the growth paradigm is “deeply embedded
in people’s minds and bodies” (Büchs and Koch , ). ey
may focus on the symptoms of growth rather than capitalism’s
fundamental need to divide and exploit.
In the next two sections, we venture some thoughts about how
degrowth combined with alliance-building might address the
political, theoretical, ontological and ethical distinctions noted above.
Alliance strategies for the degrowth movement
Degrowth authors have been writing for some time about the
need to form alliances, given that multiple seemingly disconnected
social-ecological struggles can be traced back to the growth-based
economic system. Alliances among justice movements provide fertile
ground for degrowth initiatives, both locally and globally. In fact,
movements can build partnerships from the ground up, reaching
out both locally and through social media via political networks
(Lorek and Fuchs ). For example, Indigenous and decolonial
movements to dismantle colonial violence share ontological
wisdom, providing the foundation for a new approach to movement
governance that builds and relies on social equity from the start.
Environmental justice, feminist, LGBTQIA*, anti-racist, and anti-
ableist groups, in alliance, provide strength, unity and solidarity to
a cause or social movement (e.g., Davis , Rodríguez-Labajos
et al. ). Well-built alliances allow space to address all groups’
particular needs and concerns.
Alliance formation draws from mutual support and practical,
collective energy. In addition to fostering socio-political action
and conceptual cross-fertilisation (Akbulut et al. , ), alliances
invite a diversity of perspectives that can aid the development of
new strategies to overcome the shared obstacles posed by the growth
imperative (Scheidel and Schaartzik , ).
Personal relationship-building and information-sharing is the
only way to build alliances in such contexts. eir strength may
be directly related to the depth of the relationships built over time.
Hence, some of the elements needed for building alliances include
respectful relationships, trust, taking time, acknowledging anger and
the colonial legacy, understanding privilege and benet, working
through guilt, respecting dierence, collaboration, and learning
the history of Indigenous–non-Indigenous (or settler) relationships
(Fitzmaurice , summarising a lecture by Lynne Davis and
Heather Shpuniarsky).
As Dengler and Seebacher explain, “degrowth must not be
misunderstood as a blueprint for a global transformation proposed
by the Global North and imposed on the Global South, but rather
as a Northern supplement to Southern ideas and movements, which
already exist”
(Dengler and Seebacher , ). In this sense,
historical economic relations, particularly inequities, should certainly
remain at the forefront of the degrowth movement – an ongoing
topic for discussion, deconstruction, and reassessment.
Building commons as a strategy for the degrowth movement
Another related approach is to build non-capitalist, equitable
ways to provide livelihoods and wellbeing at community levels. As
noted above, commons theorists have made many contributions to
degrowth theory and praxis.
Commons theorists Silke Helfrich and David Bollier point out
that many commons (on which billions of people already depend)
are entirely outside the growth economy, and thus can be seen
as cornerstones of degrowth. eir contributions to social trust,
wellbeing, food and service provision of many kinds, innovations
in social norms and collective governance, and skills for non-market
provisioning are all part of an equitable degrowth transformation:
“If ‘the economy’ is re-imagined through key commons notions
like distributed production, modularity, collective ownership,
and stewardship, it is possible to embrace the idea of a high-
performance economic system while rejecting capitalist notions
and institutions (corporations, global markets, competition,
labour)” (Helfrich and Bollier , ).
Movements that focus on social equity can also foster ways to
support livelihoods outside the market, consistent with degrowth.
But degrowth activists should join struggles to resist the co-optation
of commons through capitalist bail-outs or neoliberal remedies,
e.g., when the U.S. and other universities in the Majority World
14 Dengler and Seebacher (2019) provide a good preliminary list of degrowth considerations
in non-European contexts.
shield their research results behind secrecy and paywalls in order to
commercialise the results (Caentzis and Federici ), or the World
Bank expels local people from forests and new “game parks” where
they have lived for generations (Isla ), or unenclosed Swiss Alpine
meadows and dairy cooperatives and Maine lobster shery commons
are driven to produce for the market (Caentzis and Federici ).
Commons require a community that is equitably organised and run,
with transparently shared wealth that is cooperatively and socially
produced in ways that strengthen and reinforce communal values.
When degrowth and commons are mutually supporting, livelihoods
and social equity are also reinforced (Caentzis and Federici )
and inter-personal relationships also grow. e degrowth movement
should thus strategically focus on the creation/restoration of commons
in theoretical and practical terms, in order to help build social equity
from the ground up (Brownhill et al. ).
Conclusion: social equity is central to degrowth
Since capitalist growth is grounded in and dependent on
colonialism, patriarchy, and race and class discrimination,
undoing and eliminating these pernicious structures is central to
degrowth. In this chapter, we have attempted to show that with
social equity at the forefront of the degrowth movement, social-
ecological transformation becomes more ethical, politically feasible,
theoretically grounded and ontologically rich. Even in the Minority
World, alliances among groups with pressing social equity claims
are a crucial part of the socio-political transformations that include
degrowth. Globally, wellbeing for all is an urgent priority, especially
in times of pandemic and climate chaos, when the marginalised are
more likely than ever to nd themselves underserved and exploited
by growth-oriented economic systems, despite their long-standing
knowledge of how to cope (Kousis and Paschou ). Such crises
demand a social equity-oriented approach that builds structures and
skills to create communities of wellbeing and trust while sustaining
livelihoods outside and beyond capitalism.
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Chapter :
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations
By Panos Petridis
15
e concept of social-ecological transformation has been central
and explicit within the degrowth debate: degrowth is often said to
provide a repoliticised vision for the radical transformation of society
(e.g., Asara et al. , Muraca , Petridis et al. ). But how is
this to come about? In order to facilitate a purposive transformation,
we need to shift part of our attention from diagnosis to the
development and evaluation of strategy. A process of social-ecological
transformation as envisioned by degrowth would arguably require a
synergy between the three modes of transformation introduced by
Erik Olin Wright (, ), and outlined in detail in Chapter :
ruptural, interstitial, and symbiotic.
Following this strategic canvas, the scope of the chapter is
the following: First, I stress the importance of complementing
strategies and argue that a synthetic viewpoint can empower
individual struggles, but also help us identify points of convergence
between political proposals. en, I turn my focus, particularly
to the relationship between the interstitial and symbiotic modes of
transformation, and revisit the so-called “non-reformist reforms”,
and their potential to reinforce transformation. Finally, I discuss
some tentative conditions for evaluating strategies, in light of an
emancipatory horizon. My take-home message is that there is a need
to understand, and support, those subversive practices and reforms
that, while they can take place in the current system, at the same
time modify the relations of power – and thus bring us closer to an
emancipatory future.
15 Many thanks to Christos Zografos and the editors of this chapter for their useful comments.
Synthesis and complementarity: in search of subversive,
emancipatory institutions
e core of the “degrowth” institutions that are envisioned will
likely be derived from social movements and interstitial bottom-
up solidarity economy initiatives that operate against the logic of
capital. ese are the main spaces of social and social-ecological
experimentation and historically the eld where progressive
proposals have been advanced – in large part because a degrowth
transformation is not expected to come from the elite establishment.
ese “nowtopias” (Carlsson and Manning ) are pregurative,
emancipatory initiatives that not only envision but also embody
an alternative model of societal organisation in practice. ey
are relevant because, while providing for specic needs (for food,
housing etc.), they also contain the seeds of an alternative model
of social organisation and low-scale generative economy based on
solidarity, collaboration and “commoning” in practice (Bauwens
et al. , Bollier and Helfrich ). e basic idea is that
participation in such initiatives helps deconstruct the dominant
consumer/capitalist mode of being and creates a new collective
political project.
ese initiatives can be reinforced by public awareness campaigns
and activist action that may very well take the form of civil
disobedience or other ruptural strategies, such as the occupation
and re-imagination of defunct public assets. Perhaps even more
importantly, and especially in the current socio-political context,
they would greatly benet from institutional arrangements that
can support them and safeguard them from being crushed or
marginalised by dominant powers, and thus avoid becoming just
“exit strategies” for a few concerned (middle class) citizens.
A synthetic approach is also necessary in order to avoid co-
optation, for example of solidarity economy initiatives from
capitalist enterprises or of economic localisation from xenophobic
administrations. Or, to take another example, the reduction of
working hours with the same pay, or an unconditional basic income,
can potentially free up part of our time and creativity for political
participation and engagement in degrowth initiatives or provide
quality time with our family and community, but – if taken alone
– it can also just lead to increased private consumption, or further
legitimise precarious employment. Similarly, the use of open-
source technologies can make production more participatory
and democratic, but it does not guarantee the production of eco-
friendly products, nor does it ensure that those are not appropriated
by for-prot enterprises. So tools and technologies need to be
complemented with an alternative culture of production, as well
as institutions that would govern their use. And vice versa, such
institutional changes can also showcase more prominently during
social movement mobilisations and demands. Strategic plurality
is often more likely to contribute to future resilience of degrowth
proposals by helping to keep the big picture in view and see the
interconnections, interdependencies and obstacles that need to be
overcome to achieve and maintain a common goal (see also Chapter
).
A case in point is the building materials factory of Vio.Me in
essaloniki, Greece, abandoned by its owners, leaving workers
unpaid since May . rough a decision by their general assembly,
the workers decided to occupy the factory and operate it under
direct democratic control. ey resumed production in February
, also shifting to the use of organic materials. is unique
experiment for Greece, in terms of scale, highlights the importance
of complementing strategies: a ruptural occupation, coupled with
interstitial self-organisation to fair and ecological production, in
urgent need of symbiotic support. is in fact is a pattern commonly
observed when dealing with the institutionalisation of alternative
practices: such initiatives are at constant risk, as long as they are
not covered by a legal framework. But, what kind of institutional
changes are we talking about?
Given the necessity but also the diculty to achieve institutional
change and reform higher-level institutions, André Gorz has
made a very important and relevant qualitative distinction,
between conventional reforms and non-reformist reforms (Gorz
). Conventional reforms such as humanitarian aid, corporate
volunteerism, responsible shopping, or “green growth” investments
have at the very best an ameliorative eect, but basically legitimise
existing power structures, dynamics of accumulation, and political
processes, and in eect achieve no transformative change (Bond
). In contrast, non-reformist reforms are incompatible with the
preservation of the current system. ey directly empower social
movements and demands and “are conceived not in terms of what is
possible within the framework of a given system and administration,
but in view of what should be made possible in terms of human
needs and demands” (Gorz , , own emphasis). ey propose
a way to overcome the historical problem of dualism between the
tactic having to happen now and strategy coming after and intend to
“simultaneously make life better within the existing economic system
and expand the potential for future advances of democratic power”
(Wright , ). Such “non-reformist reforms” are by nature
subversive, and create the space and conditions for transformative
policies to emerge.
Some relevant questions are: To which extent can reforms support
the conditions for nowtopias to ourish, for example, a legal
framework backing up cooperative rms? In which cases can ruptural
civic action and nowtopias push for the adoption of institutional
reforms, and under which conditions can positive feedback be
initiated? e main challenge is that nowtopias, much like grassroots
innovations, need to operate on the margins of the current system
and sometimes even need to be illegal in the short term in order to
induce institutional changes that will render them appropriate to a
more just future (Smith et al. ). Similarly, we can only speculate
about the threshold at which symbiotic transformations require the
elimination of capitalism as a precondition for their own existence
(Murphy ). In essence, we seek proposals that are at least
marginally appropriate for a local situation at present, while at the
same time transforming those same conditions in the future. In
other words, if we understand nowtopias as expressions of the desire
for a better way of living that involve the reconstruction of society
imagined otherwise (Levitas ), the challenge then is how such
an emancipatory “utopian” project can be grounded on existing
practices but at the same time leave space for imaginary alternatives.
Tentative conditions for evaluating strategies: considerations for
non-reformist reforms
Following Wright (, ), I argue for placing the strategic emphasis
on institutions that “envision the contours of an alternative social
world that embodies emancipatory ideals and then look for social
innovations that move us towards that destination”, what he called
“real utopias”, such as participatory budgeting, solidarity nance,
worker-owned cooperatives, and unconditional basic income.
Wright’s proposal is to further evaluate alternatives according to their
desirability, viability (longer-term sustainability), and achievability
(how do we move from here to there?), putting strategic emphasis
on the viability component. If an alternative is desirable, but not
viable or achievable, he argues, then it is just “utopian”. Similarly,
a reform can be non-reformist, or just ameliorative, depending on
the set of criteria or conditions by which we choose to evaluate it. In
one of his preferred examples, Gorz () stated that the demand
for building , new housing units every year in France to meet
people’s housing needs, could either be termed a neocapitalist or an
anti-capitalist reform, depending on whether it would involve public
subsidies to private enterprise, or if it was constructed as a socialised
public service on conscated private territory. Still, nowadays we
might dismiss both options altogether on ecological grounds.
What we can learn from the above is that there is a need to
constantly evaluate both our proposals and overall strategies – but
based on which criteria? One suggestion, inspired by Wright’s
approach, is to critically examine our strategies according to their
emancipatory potential. Note that I use the term “emancipation” in
its more classical sense, referring to liberation from the alienating
logics of productivism, eciency, growth and overconsumption and
not, as it has also been associated with, ever more individualised
freedom, exibility and increasingly consumerist lifestyles (Blühdorn
). Given that ruptural and interstitial modes of transformation
are perhaps more straightforward and, at least according to the
description above, are largely already “emancipatory”, this task
then becomes especially relevant for symbiotic strategies that often
take the form of institutional arrangements and policy proposals.
Here the battleground becomes more contested and lines can be
blurred. To this end, it would be very useful to begin to consider the
factors and conditions that would render proposed strategies “non-
reformist” and emancipatory, as opposed to just “ameliorative.” What
could such conditions look like? Departing from Wright’s principles
of emancipatory social sciences, we can start developing some
tentative conditions, listed below. A proposal can be hypothesised to
be non-reformist or transformative if:
1. It results from bottom-up social movement demands.
is condition addresses desirability and follows from an
attempt to identify the potential of human demands, as
discussed by Gorz (). If non-reformist reforms are to be
conceived in view of what should be made possible in terms
of human needs and demands, one would therefore need to
evaluate those demands by directly listening and responding
to emancipatory social and ecological movements. A relevant
question would be: Does a proposal resonate directly with
social movement demands, rather than vested interests or
representatives?
2. It contributes to a set of emancipatory moral principles.
is directly tackles the emancipatory vision of a proposal.
Wright () notably mentions the following three moral
principles: equality, democracy and sustainability; one could
also include diversity and freedom of expression. Related
questions: Does a proposal get us closer to an emancipatory
vision (as shaped by these moral principles), or put us in a
better position to reach it? How does a proposal contribute
to one or more goals related to the above principles (e.g.,
decreasing inequality, increasing participation, reducing
environmental impact)?
3. It contributes to the building of democratic institutions.
e relevance of (direct) democracy for degrowth (e.g.,
Cattaneo et al. ) lies not only in considering the
governance of future “degrowth” societies but also in its
role in achieving purposive transformation. More than just
contributing to an emancipatory ideal, this refers to the
possibility of reinforcing values that would contribute to the
building of longer-lasting, less totalitarian, more democratic,
more participatory institutions. Questions: Does a proposal
modify relations of power? Which proposals decentralise
decision making, extending popular power against the powers
of state or capital?
4. It has a place in the current society, but also in the desired
society. is is a reality-check on the viability of a proposal.
One would ask: Is a proposal applicable at present, but also in
the envisioned society, or is it only perceived as a transitory
tactic that does not have inherent value for the future?
To use an illustrative example, let us look at the issue of meaningful
employment – a cornerstone of envisioned degrowth society and
perhaps constituting the main link between nowtopias and non-
reformist reforms. Nowtopias in a way try to redene work, while
some of the most critical non-reformist reforms are those that
directly tackle the issue of employment. Take the example of
worker-owned cooperatives: these result from bottom-up social
movements demands, contribute to the moral principles of equality
and democracy, as well as to the building of long-term counter-
institutions, and have a place in the present society while also
preguring a future mode of working conditions and relations.
ey have clear emancipatory potential, as they directly subvert and
modify current relations of power. Similar proposals supporting
solidarity economy practices (legally, institutionally and nancially)
essentially fall in the same category of providing work imagined
dierently. While the main goal of such proposals is the reduction of
unemployment, they simultaneously support an alternative model of
social and environmental relations.
Other examples could be participatory budgeting or participatory
urban planning. ey also result from long-lasting social movement
demands; they reinforce a series of emancipatory moral ideals such
as democracy, participation and freedom of expression; and they
contribute to the building of more decentralised participatory
and democratic institutions. Finally, they also embody a mode of
organisation that is both applicable today and would also pregure
and be highly desirable in a future degrowth society.
e proposed conditions are meant to be used heuristically and
do not intend to be complete or comprehensive, and by no means
are intended as a blueprint for transformations. Still, collectively
developing and elaborating such a list of considerations can be very
useful in evaluating the viability of a strategy, or strategy mix. One
important common point about the proposed conditions is that the
main focus is on the emancipatory direction, rather than the speed
of change. Changes can be sudden or gradual, but reformism is only
radical as long as it modies the relations of power, in view of an
emancipatory horizon. Otherwise, it is just conventional reformism.
Moreover, this focal shift also largely bypasses the longstanding
debates on the role of the state versus bottom-up action by focusing
instead on subversive strategies (both state and non-state) that would
ultimately help us build more participatory institutions (see Chapter
). is is a radically dierent view of the state from just being a
delegator of peoples’ hopes, a fact that has often led to the co-option
of social demands. Still, it would require large doses of ingenuity
to identify non-hegemonic ways of linking social movements with
higher-level institutions.
To summarise, the development of “degrowth” as a subversive
slogan over the past decade has oered us a new narrative to
collectively envision an alternative form of social organisation
beyond the logic of economism and towards simpler, more ecological
and democratic societies. It has also provided a vocabulary that
intends to give meaning to local initiatives and connect them to
policy proposals. In order to further advance our understanding
of the potential synthesis and complementarity of strategies for
transformation, and “do things now that put us in the best position
to do more later” (Wright , ) there is a need to examine those
subversive practices and reforms that would be feasible today, while
still, at the same time, be able to pregure alternative social relations
and enhance democratic participation, and in this way facilitate the
conditions for emancipatory transformation.
References
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Sustainable Degrowth as a Social-Ecological Transformation: Repoliticizing Sus-
tainability.” Sustainability Science , no. : –.
Bauwens, Michel, Vasilis Kostakis, and Alex Pazaitis. . Peer to Peer: e Com-
mons Manifesto. University of Westminster Press.
Blühdorn, Ingolfur. . “e Sustainability of Democracy: On Limits to Growth,
the Post-Democratic Turn and Reactionary Democrats.” Eurozine, July , :
–.
Bollier, David, and Silke Helfrich, eds. . Patterns of Commoning. Commons
Strategy Group and O the Common Press.
Bond, Patrick. . “Reformist Reforms, Non-Reformist Reforms and Global Jus-
tice Activist, NGO and Intellectual Challenges in the World Social Forum.” Soci-
eties Without Borders : –.
Carlsson, Chris, and Francesca Manning. . “Nowtopia: Strategic Exodus?” An-
tipode : –.
Cattaneo, Claudio, Giacomo D’Alisa, Giorgos Kallis, and Christos Zografos. .
“Degrowth Futures and Democracy.” Futures , no. : –.
Gorz, André. . Strategy for Labor. Boston: Beacon Press.
Levitas, Ruth. . e Imaginary Reconstitution of Society or Why Sociologists and
Others Should Take Utopia More Seriously. Inaugural Lecture, University of Bristol,
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Muraca, Barbara. . “Décroissance: A Project for a Radical Transformation of
Society.” Environmental Values , no. : –.
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can Sociological Review , no. : –.
Chapter :
Rethinking state-civil society relations
By Max Koch
Degrowth strategising has suered from a tension between viewing
the state as incapable of initiating transformational change – a
view especially prominent in the Anarchist tradition – and making
a political appeal to it to do precisely this. As Cosme et al. ()
rst observed, most of the eco-social policies that degrowth activists
promote would require a great deal of intervention by states and/
or international organisations. A limited number of papers have
attempted to bridge this tension by addressing the state as an arena
within degrowth activism.
D’Alisa and Kallis (; see also D’Alisa ) review perspectives
on the state within degrowth thinking from a Gramscian perspective.
My own contribution (Koch a) applies materialist state theories
to sketch the general direction and potential roles of the state in
social-ecological transformations at various scales (local, national,
European), emphasising use-value orientation, welfare and the
satisfaction of human needs. I argue that, if they are able to mobilise
a suciently large number of resources, degrowth and related
movements could become strategically relevant and transformative
public policies would be more likely to be implemented. ese
policies could help set in motion a societal transformation that
would successively allow the state to step out of its current role of
facilitating the socio-economic context for economic growth. Such a
transformation of the roles that the state plays in society would need
to be complemented by changes to the apparatuses of the state itself,
for example through the addition of citizens’ assemblies.
ese works have proposed how degrowth might conceptualise
the state in a transformation – considering both its limits and
possibilities. However, neither of the papers mentioned discuss in
any greater detail the strategic implications for degrowth arising from
the proposed conceptualisations of the state and state-civil society
relations. is chapter examines the theories of Antonio Gramsci,
Nicos Poulantzas and Pierre Bourdieu in this light (see Koch
for a more detailed version). It rst compares and contrasts the
three theories in respect to general characteristics of state-civil
society relations. It then addresses related principles of domination
and crises as structural openings for oppositional movements like
degrowth. Emphasis is placed on the potential in periods of crisis
for creating and expanding alternative spaces. e chapter concludes
with a summary of the strategic implications for degrowth actors and
with some suggestions for how a critical perspective of the state may
be taken forward in degrowth research.
General characteristics of state-civil society relations
Civil society is often understood as a social sphere separate from
politics and economy, with “solidarity” and “basic egalitarianism”
(Müller , ) reigning in the former and exploitation and
bureaucracy dominating the latter (this view also to some extent
underlies Erik Olin Wright’s framework discussed in Chapter
). Gramsci, Poulantzas and Bourdieu take a dierent view,
emphasising, in particular ways, interconnections between state and
civil society.
Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks () contain a systematic analysis of
the changes in state-civil society relationships in Western Europe
after World War I. Before, the bourgeois rule was characterised
by a direct economic rule coupled with military force. After the
war, however, a new sort of relationship between the state and
powerful classes emerged. e economic and military rule came to
be complemented by hegemonic, civil and political domination.
Hence, domination came to be more complex, that is, beyond the
material state apparatus in a narrow sense (“political society”) and
including areas generally regarded as belonging to civil society. e
theoretical framework describing how civil society became more
closely entangled with the state is that of the “integral state” (see also
D’Alisa and Kallis ).
By contrast, for Poulantzas, there is a clear–cut inside and outside
of the state. At rst sight, this makes his interpretation of state-civil
society relations more compatible with mainstream interpretations.
Yet, Poulantzas’ denition of the state as a “condensation of social
forces” (Poulantzas ) stresses the interdependence of the formal
“state” apparatus and “civil society.” State power is to be grasped
as a reection of the “changing balance of forces in political and
politically–relevant struggles” (Jessop , ). Political mobilisation
in a range of social spheres, Poulantzas writes, can thus strongly
inuence the concrete directions of state action.
Bourdieu rejects the notion of civil society altogether and instead
studies relatively autonomous “elds” as social arenas in which
particular activities and strategies are pursued. is is comparable to
a game, the rules and stakes of which are accepted by all players. By
conceptualising the state itself as a eld, he draws on Weber ()
and his denition of the modern state as an institutional association
of rule (Herrschaftsverband), which has successfully established
the monopoly of physical violence. What, according to Bourdieu,
remained to be done was to understand how the state managed to
also concentrate the legitimate use of “symbolic violence.” e state
appears here as the “culmination of a process of concentration of
dierent species of capital” (Bourdieu , ), including physical
instruments of coercion (army, police), economic capital, cultural
and informational capital. is process, which Bourdieu describes
in terms of a succession of socio-historical stages, culminated in the
modern bureaucratic state (including welfare and environmental
states), which itself was riddled with contradictions: e “left hand
of the state”, represented by state employees in public education,
health and social welfare, came to stand in opposition to its “right
hand” in the judiciary, domestic aairs and nance. With this
opposition, Bourdieu’s work suggests an opening for social change
through struggles within the state apparatus.
Principles of domination
How do the dominant classes rule within and beyond the material
state apparatus, and what makes dominated groups respect respect
this rule? An advanced understanding of power positions, power
relations and the role of the state within these relations can facilitate
the development of strategies that challenge the status quo. Gramsci
studied the ways in which the ruling class’s domination of political
society and its leadership of civil society came to reinforce each
other and how the powers of physical coercion and the production
of consent became intertwined. His famous “general notion of
the state” therefore refers “back to the notion of civil society”:
“state = political society + civil society, in other words, hegemony
armoured with coercion” (Gramsci , ). As briey alluded to
earlier, consent thereby necessarily includes the – albeit limited –
consideration of the interests of subordinate groups in state strategies
or, at least, the production of the appearance of such consideration.
Poulantzas takes up Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and the
dual notion of coercion and consent. State apparatuses “consecrate
and reproduce hegemony” by “bringing the power bloc and certain
dominated classes into a (variable) game of provisional compromises”
(Poulantzas , ). Eorts to increase the representation of the
subaltern in the institutional structure of the state may in fact pay o
as it can take the form of “centres of opposition” (Poulantzas ,
), from which civil society mobilisation can be reinforced.
For Bourdieu, state power exists twice: in its material or objective
form and in its symbolic form or its eect on our thoughts and
perceptions. e former mode structures society through, for
example, “timetables, budget periods, calendars” (Bourdieu ,
) or even, for example, spelling rules. One way to think of the
latter (symbolic) mode of state domination is the fact that the
“sentence of the judge or the grade of the professor” (Bourdieu ,
) tends to be perceived as appropriate and legitimate. Hence, like
Gramsci’s “hegemony”, symbolic capital is the power of making
people see the social and natural world in a specic way, perceived as
universal and natural (Koch ). By establishing “common forms
and categories of perception and appreciation”, the state creates a
pre-reexive “belief eect” on the part of the dominated, which
helps to explain why the state normally does not have to use physical
coercion for “generalised obedience” (Bourdieu , ).
Crises as strategic openings
Our three state theorists are in agreement that crises are the
structural background for societal change and provide corresponding
openings for oppositional movements. Humphrys (, ) points
out that Gramsci’s integral state is always and “necessarily unstable.”
is means that in certain instances civil society can “break through
the political container.” is is most likely during crises, generally
characterised as conjunctures (historically and/or geographically
specic combinations of circumstances or events), where “no group,
neither the conservatives nor the progressives, has the strength
for victory” (Gramsci , ). However, crises may also serve as
context and entry points for “charismatic ‘men of destiny’” (Gramsci
, ) and authoritarian exit strategies. is was strategically
reected in his notion of a “war of position”
, in which a new kind
of intellectual, unied with the subaltern, was to play the role of
“constructor, organiser, ‘permanently active persuader’” (Gramsci
, ). Such “organic intellectuals” – for example, researchers,
journalists and other professions that more or less directly contribute
to producing and reproducing inuential and especially public
discourses – would nd their role only in their integration with
the citizenry. In this perspective, the more codied knowledge of
“intellectuals” benets more from the practical knowledge of the
16 By contrast, the “war of movement”may be a revolutionary alternative in societies with less
developed “trenches”of civil society, such as in Russia in 1917. Gramsci (2011, 229–230)
illustrates the distinction as follows: “Ghandi’s passive resistance is a war of position, which
at certain moments becomes a war of movement, and at others underground warfare.
Boycotts are a form of war of position, strikes a war of movement, the secret preparation
of weapons and combat troops belong to underground warfare.”
citizenry, rather than the other way around. e former are educated
just as often as they serve as educators.
Poulantzas expands Gramsci’s notion of crises by discussing their
threefold character: economic, political/ideological and state crises.
ese forms of crisis are not directly related. Economic crises do not
automatically become political crises nor do the latter immediately
become crises of the state. Neither do the dierent forms of crisis
necessarily have to coincide. Given the interconnectedness of the
state and civil society, he does not assign priority to struggles that
are either inside or outside the state (Brand and Heigl , ),
and, instead, suggests that these “two forms of struggle must be
combined” (Poulantzas , ). Hence, if Gramsci argued
that the dislocation of consent in civil society was to be achieved
by an alternative hegemonic project and from there advanced to
political society, Poulantzas (, ) added that subaltern groups
could occupy “centres of resistance” within the state, which were
to be strategically coordinated and increased in number until they
become “real centres of power”, capable of staging “real breaks”
with the established order – or, in the terminology of Erik Olin
Wright (), whose work in many ways built upon Poulantzas
– “ruptural transformations” (see Chapter ). As a corollary,
Poulantzas encouraged both the amplication of subaltern voices
within state institutions and representative democracy as well as
popular movements for establishing new forms of deliberative
elements, including principles of direct democracy. While this may
involve a “war of position” (Gramsci) within the state itself, this
does not mean that the struggles in neighbourhoods, communities,
workplaces, campuses and so on are to be neglected.
Bourdieu points out that, during periods of crisis, there is an
increased chance that alternative ways of thinking and acting
become inuential. Acts of symbolic mobilisation are then able
to “manipulate hopes and expectations”, introducing a “degree of
play” into the otherwise unquestioned interplay of objective chances
and subjective expectations (Bourdieu , ). In this context,
researchers or “intellectuals” can take the role of “professional
practitioners” or “spokespersons of the dominated” (Bourdieu ,
), even if such “transfer of cultural capital” is always in danger
of “hijacking” due to the dierence in social position and interests
of intellectuals and the dominated (Koch b). While Bourdieu
regards intellectuals
as holders of cultural capital, as part of the
“dominant class”, that is, they are in a superior class position vis-
à-vis the middle and lower classes, he nevertheless places them
in a “dominated” position vis-à-vis the dominant fraction of the
dominant class: the holders of economic capital. Hence, intellectuals
(“dominated-dominant”), middle and lower classes, occupy dierent
positions in the social structure and, as a consequence, personify
“dierent experiences of domination” (Bourdieu , ). ough
his insistence on this dierence in social position (and, as a corollary,
in the interests of intellectuals) constitutes a sociological critique
of the Gramscian notion of “organic intellectuals” – as well as a
qualication and further development of it, Bourdieu nevertheless
formulates a similar ambition.
Expanding alternative spaces
Gramsci emphasised that the integral character of state-civil society
relationships is never complete and perfect. is was already
applicable to the early period of Fordism, with its “mass” parties
and corporatist organisations. As the Fordist regime transitioned
to a neoliberal one, this integrative function weakened even more
(Crouch ). Such upswings and downswings of the integrative
capacity at dierent historic stages of state-civil society relations
seem to point to a dialectical reading of some of Gramsci’s core
17 Bourdieu refuses to provide a substantial or denite denition of who and what kind
of practice actually counts as “intellectual”. He assumes the historical development of a
relatively autonomous “intellectual eld” with its own specic laws and principles of capital
distribution, especially that of a symbolic kind. ough the “currency” of this capital is
somewhat dicult to measure, Bourdieu (1990) emphasises that it cannot be expressed in
commercial terms in the rst place. More important is the recognition indicated through
publications, citations, awards, appointments to academies, and so forth. An “intellectual”
is then an actor who is included in and operates in the intellectual eld.
concepts. Just as there are conjunctures where the economy is
“embedded” and “disembedded” from society (Polanyi ),
the “enwrapping” of civil society by the state in one political and
economic conjuncture can turn into “unwrapping” in the next.
Identifying the limits of the integrating eects of state-civil society
relations in certain conjunctures is of great strategic signicance, as
each new regime of state-civil society relations corresponds with new
openings for oppositional movements. is would imply dedicating
more time and energy to civil society organisations such as churches,
trade unions, unemployment initiatives, but also to ghting
counterstrategies on the part of the dominant, for example, in the
form of lobbying or climate emergency denial.
Following Gramsci, a degrowth strategy oriented around state-
civil society relationships would need to be built on a combination
of the theoretical knowledge of “organic intellectuals” of various
kinds and the practical knowledge of subaltern groups engaged in
a range of oppositional practices and struggles. To unite both sorts
of knowledge, Bourdieu () highlights the importance of joint
practical and deliberative exercises as measures of “countertraining”.
ese have the best chance of gaining critical amounts of support
if they are tied up with traits of habitus that have become blocked
over the course of socialisation and daily life (Koch b) and can
help extend social spaces in which the growth imperative and the
associated values of status, competition and performance become
neutralised.
One example of such collaboration between researchers, activists
and other citizens is the deliberative citizen forum. In an ongoing
research project, Jayeon Lindelle, Johanna Alkan-Olsson and I
explore how these may be used to identify alternative and sustainable
needs satisers as well as form the foundation for policy (Koch et
al. ; Koch ). While such forums are by denition locally
and temporally specic, their outcomes have, in dierent social
contexts, helped to critically review policy goals, behaviours, needs
satisers, and infrastructures, and led to adaptations in long-term
policy planning (Guillén-Royo ). To awaken the capacities of
individuals to free play and alternative thinking and to promote
opportunities for mutual learning, these forums should be organised
in an atmosphere as welcoming, open, and participatory as possible.
is implies mixed-methods approaches beyond panel-style
“exchanges of arguments” including workshops, storytelling, as well
as performative methods including lming and theatre.
Taking forward a critical perspective of the state in degrowth
strategies
ere are four strategic implications for degrowth strategising
arising from this discussion of state-civil society relationships.
First, a degrowth strategy exclusively targeted at (certain areas of)
civil society and not the state – or indeed vice versa – is bound to
fail, because state and civil society are interconnected in myriad
ways, that is, the internal structures and struggles within one are
signicantly co-produced by corresponding processes in the other.
Bourdieu’s notion of social elds with specic logics, rules, interests,
forms of capital and positions is a useful specication of the rather
vague notion of “civil society”. Second, my plea to include the
state as a central arena in degrowth activism does not mean to
underestimate the risk of co-optation of civil society movements
by state bureaucracies. ird, to avoid this, it is crucial that the
connection of movements outside the state with their representatives
within it does not weaken but indeed strengthens over time. More
eorts may be dedicated to scenarios and methods where interaction
and feedback between holders of public oce and their electoral base
could be facilitated and intensied.
Finally, when it comes to broadening the social base of the
degrowth movement, it would make sense to better develop eco-
social policies through alternative spaces such as deliberative forums
18 ese may include the limitation of public oce to a certain amount of years and the
complimenting of institutions of representative democracy with elements of direct
democracy, such as deliberative citizens’ forums.
between activists, researchers and citizens. It is not only single policy
suggestions that are of importance here, but also their potential
integration into a new “virtuous policy circle” (Hirvilammi ).
A useful entry point is the already initiated constructive dialogue
with Green New Deal proposals (Mastini et al. ). is could be
further developed by considering a temporal dimension of social-
ecological transformation, involving a short-term (in the context
of the COVID--crisis), mid-term (including a phase-out of the
most emission-intensive industries; Eckersley ) and long-term
perspective (transformation to a provisioning economy of use-values
serving as sustainable needs satisers). Further strategic gains could
also be made by considering appropriate governance networks and
divisions of labour across actors (such as private and civil society
actors, commons and the state) and scales (EU, national, local). A
crosscutting eort could attempt to identify a limited number of
key proposals with the potential for “ruptural” transformation and
around which a new virtuous circle of policies could be formulated.
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Chapter :
Strategic entanglements
By Susan Paulson
is book brings together explorations of strategy and plurality
to address a vital question: how can progress towards degrowth
goals be strengthened and coordinated without sacricing the
diversity of positions and approaches involved? Degrowth horizons
are broadened by the celebration of a rainbow of knowledges,
cosmologies, and vital worlds, conceptualised as components of a
pluriverse. However, in contexts where institutional power favours
authoritative knowledge, and where political successes are bolstered
by unied positions, plurality raises all kinds of challenges.
Contributors agree that a transformation towards worlds that
prioritise good living for all will require us to nd points of
convergence and to activate synergies among diverse positions. ere
is less consensus on how to do this. To date, degrowth alliances
have foregrounded principles and processes, including participatory
democracy, inclusion, commoning, suciency, conviviality, and care.
Contributors to this book explore strategies to accelerate progress
towards desired outcomes by expanding scales and realms of action;
interconnecting dierent kinds of struggle; and establishing shared
frameworks, goals, or measures of progress.
Recognizing that it is unlikely (and perhaps not even desirable)
for degrowth to develop into a banner of massive mobilization or
an umbrella coordinating diverse movements, this chapter explores
possibilities of “strategic entanglements”. e metaphor alludes to
quantum entanglement, a physical phenomenon that occurs when a
group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity
such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described
independently of the others. To make such entanglements strategic,
a rst move is to foster mutual learning and nourishment among
interlocutors and collaborators in qualitatively dierent positions
and places. A second move is to heighten awareness of relations of
power and dierence among us; this encompasses concern not
only that degrowth activists and thinkers might be co-opted by
powerful forces, but also that other visions and pathways might be
encompassed by degrowth processes.
e rst part of this chapter looks at opportunities and challenges
for building alliances across dierences, then addresses strategies for
enhancing degrowth coordination across scales, realms, and types
of transformative action. Asking what forces and factors have been
frustrating such eorts, the text examines hierarchical socio-cultural
systems and narratives that divide and polarise potential allies. It
then makes a case for heightening awareness of relative positioning
and power within these systems, and for contextualising pathways
and perspectives in relevant places and social groups. e conclusion
looks towards more horizontal models for mutual nourishment and
mobilising for change.
Possibilities and challenges of alliances among diversely
empowered positions and paths
People in dierent positions and contexts are exploring degrowth
as a eld of research, a network of social movements, a community
of scholar-activists, a way of life, or a vision for desirable futures.
An even broader range of people and movements may contribute
to – and benet from – degrowth, including nature-lovers, care
providers, local governments, diverse workers’ organisations, ghters
for environmental justice, overworked professionals, vegans, hippies,
families with children, biking fanatics, unemployed people, people
employed in exploitative and harmful jobs, climate refugees, back-
to-the-landers, senior citizens, people engaged in anti-colonial and
anti-capitalist movements, members of low-income communities,
feminists, and anti-racists (Kallis et al. , ). How can relations
among some of these contribute more strategically towards desired
outcomes?
ere are moments for raising a big tent, jumping into
indeterminate relations with all, and striving to treat everyone the
same. is chapter, however, foregrounds lessons from degrowth
analyses and initiatives that explicitly recognise and respect
dierences, and that attend conscientiously to power dynamics
among them. Human biology, socio-cultural practice, and changing
environments continually interact to create astonishingly diverse
ways of being human. ese forms of diversity – within and among
societies – are essential to vitality and adaptation in human history.
However, while dierences among humans are good and necessary,
systems that dierentiate people in hierarchical and exploitative
ways limit progress towards goals of care and equitable wellbeing.
As chapters and argue, societies organised around the capitalist
growth imperative have been built on, and now function to
reinforce, social relations in which life opportunities and spaces of
action, assets, and income are distributed in brutally uneven ways.
Strategic entanglements explicitly recognise the class, gender,
colonial, and ethno-racial systems that categorise people into those
unequal relationships and attend to ways in which these systems
constrain and contaminate attempts at alliance-building. Experiences
of mutual exchange across dierently empowered knowledges and
beings can nourish the adoption of healthier and more equitable
socio-cultural systems (Paulson ). e promising news is that
possibilities for innovative moves towards degrowth objectives
are opened by historical crises including climate breakdown
and pandemics that destabilise established orders. In chapter ,
social theory is mobilised to illuminate ways to seize such historic
opportunities for social and structural change.
Beware, however, that eco-social crises also nourish reactionary
alliances. As current troubles threaten the status quo, identity
categories are being strategically mobilised to polarise potential
allies and limit capacities to envision and enact systemic change.
For example, scientists calling to limit CO emissions and other
forms of ecological damage are construed as elite antagonists to
workers demanding jobs and security. Rather than choose sides,
degrowth advocates are pursuing strategies ranging from patient
listening and dialogue among opposing actors to applications of
Green New Deals, job guarantees, and universal basic incomes that
support viable livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems as inseparable
objectives (Lawhon and McCreary ).
While those who deny climate change dier from those who
advocate green growth via ecomodernism and geoengineering,
their strategies and motives interconnect in powerful ways: they are
similarly constituted by mostly white men positioned in the Global
North, and their proposals are designed to avoid changing – or even
questioning – the hierarchical social systems that sustain economies
based on uneven distribution of benets and burdens (Paulson
and Boose ; Paulson ; see also Chapter ). ese and
other actors strategically unite under banners of political-economic
stability and defence of geopolitical interests in campaigns to
delegitimise calls to curb growth, respond to COVID-, and address
systemic racism, sexism, and economic inequality.
On all these fronts, resistance to change is fuelled by an
understandable fear of losing personal identities and relationships.
Although conservative ideologies portray current roles and relations
as determined by nature (and, for many of us, they come to feel
natural), historical analyses show that they have been created by
evolving societies (and adapted to support growth). e liberating
empirical record shows that human identities and relations change
historically and can certainly be made more equitable and reciprocal
through human creativity and action. One example of strategic
entanglements supporting systemic change is dialogue among radical
environmentalists, eco-feminists, and masculinities on reasons and
opportunities for people of all identities to adapt gender expectations
and relations that are healthier for themselves, as well as for human
and non-human others (Hultman and Pulé ; MenEngage ).
Interconnecting initiatives across scales and realms
To date, much attention to degrowth praxis has focused on
local initiatives such as community gardens, time banks, maker
spaces, and bike-repair cooperatives. In Degrowth in Movement(s):
Exploring Pathways for Transformation, Burkhart et al. ()
draw on participatory case studies to explore the exercise of
agency in a mosaic of eco-social movements whose shared focus
on emancipatory practice coexists in tension with challenging
dierences around moral frameworks, relations with capitalism,
and organisational dynamics. In Chapter , lessons from this
collaborative experience, including observations of unexpected
synergies among local movements that lead to broader changes,
are applied to challenges of moving towards degrowth – in activist
communities as well as broader societies.
ere is more contention around the potential of local initiatives
to interconnect with social, educational, and governmental
institutions operating on regional and national levels. In debates
documented by Gómez-Baggethun (), some degrowth
advocates insist that small ventures with convivial technologies are
the only way to move beyond hierarchy and exploitation, while
others support re-orienting large-scale industrial technologies
towards healthier ends. Demmer and Hummel () describe
eorts to support mutual learning about degrowth across grassroots
experiments and formal university training, where ways of knowing
and interrelating sometimes seem incommensurable. How can we
activate more synergies across these gaps and power structures?
Chapter makes the case for moving beyond civil society to
engage state-level actors and actions, stressing that the two realms
are more intertwined than is recognised by many who reject working
with state-led programmes or institutions. Other contributors to
this book explore the potential for mutual benet among Erik Olin
Wright’s three modes of transformation. Chertkovskaya (Chapter
) makes a case for engaging them all by continuing interstitial
action at the core of degrowth, expanding symbiotic work to adapt
institutional conditions for radical possibilities, and provoking
localised and temporal ruptures in dominant systems. Chapter
also emphasises the dangers of degrowth energy being coopted by
powerful funds, forces, and bureaucracies that actually function to
sustain the status quo.
To that concern, I add a warning to think critically when applying
the conceptual vocabulary of evaluation that is prominent in
contemporary strategising. Measures of “eectiveness,”denedas the
degree to which eorts are successful in producing targeted results,
and “eciency”, the achievement of results with the least amount
of resources (money, time, material, and energy), have become
political and technical priorities in national and international
development industries, foregrounded in United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, and similar programmes. In contrast, local, organic, or
grassroots collectives often nd these measures antagonistic to the
above-mentioned principles of inclusion, participatory democracy,
commoning, and caring. While calculations of eciency and
eectiveness may, for example, favour a group vote followed by
action on the majority decision, such procedures could jeopardise
opportunities to build consensus amid long hours of listening to,
thinking about, and experimenting with deeply dierent visions
and approaches. Recognition of such dierently empowered logics
for advancing and measuring success connects with discussions in
Chapter of relations between means and ends, between processes
and goals, in degrowth strategy.
Logics of preguration guide many small-scale eorts with
expectations that, as degrowth-supporting practices and relations
circulate and take root in everyday practice and culture, they ripen
conditions for the emergence of correlating expressions on other
scales and structures. It can be hard to maintain faith that ideas
and energy developed in a neighbourhood cooperative contribute
to shifts in global power structures, in the way that a buttery
apping its wings sets o a chain of events leading to a distant
hurricane. Yet, there is increasing evidence that degrowth critiques
and objectives are generating tension within mainstream politics and
gaining prominence in parallel forums such as the Green New Deal
for Europe, the EU Parliament’s Post-Growth Conference, Latin
America’s Pacto Ecosocial del Sur, and the African Green Stimulus
Programme.
In recent years, many of us have been surprised to see ideas and
policies long-discussed and experimented with within so-called
“alternative” forums emerge on larger scales and power structures.
For example, degrowth’s objective of reorienting societies around
equitable wellbeing – rather than economic growth – has gained
traction among participants in the Wellbeing Economy Alliance,
including leaders of Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Scotland, and
Wales, who have pledged to prioritise wellbeing in future policies.
Amid the COVID- pandemic, a range of governments have
been experimenting with policies proposed in the books e
Case for Degrowth and Less is More: Green New Deals, basic care
incomes, job guarantees, reduced labour hours, public services,
and support for community economies. In moves to “build back
better,” the transformative potential of these policies depends on the
extent to which they are institutionalised as support for wellbeing
and regeneration of human and natural resources, rather than as
stimuli for economic growth. Chapter points to an example of
what symbiotic transformation might look like in an EU reoriented
around wellbeing and sustainability, rather than growth, while
Chapter emphasises the potential to strengthen the impact of
individual policies by integration into new policy cycles, such as a
Green New Deal.
Yet, as Chapter makes clear, the implemented policies are still
far from those called for in the open letter Degrowth, new roots for
the economy and the Feminist degrowth statement on the COVID-19
pandemic. And evidence to date suggests mixed outcomes from
the implementation of promising policies within pandemic relief
packages, driven by pushes to reignite economic growth. Hickel
() documents huge benets to asset owners and corporations
(exemplied by Amazon), steep increases in billionaire wealth and
devastating losses for the poorest of humanity. In the US,
moreover, governmental responses to the pandemic have included
dismantling – rather than increasing – environmental protections.
Seeking ways to interact more constructively with institutions,
governments, and large-scale initiatives, I now turn to underlying
structures that have been operating to constrain or co-opt such
collaborations.
Addressing hierarchical relations among positions and places
Dierences of scale and realm, like dierences of position and
identity, are never innocent of power. In contemporary societies,
power operates through historically specic hierarchical binaries that
have been disseminated with colonial capitalism and globalisation,
and internalised (or resisted) in various ways around the world. In
currently predominant paradigms, superiority and domination
of humans over other nature are conceptually and structurally
interconnected with coloniser over colonised, white over non-white,
man over woman, hetero-normative over queer, owner/executive over
worker, and nation-state over community.
e abilities of government leaders, sustainability professionals,
and green growth advocates to question the domination of humans
over other nature have been curbed by their positions and roots
in this paradigm. Of course, critical awareness could be activated
via alliances with eco-feminist, anti-colonial, anti-racist and other
movements that address interconnected hierarchies. Unfortunately,
however, powerful institutions of knowledge production have been
operating in ways that construe these perspectives as less valid than
mainstream science, and that marginalise their topics – gender
relations or racialisation, for example – as irrelevant to economic and
ecological knowledge.
At the conuence of critiques of humans-over-nature and critiques
of coloniser-over-colonised, conversations about degrowth oer
ways towards deeper interrogation of these historical structures.
Since its earliest articulations, decroissance/degrowth diverged from
mainstream development and environmental stances by seeking ways
for “developed” societies, positioned as colonisers, to reduce our
negative impacts on other people and environments, starting with
eorts to decolonise our own minds from the growth imperative and
to examine our own ambitions and exploitations before intervening
to x the rest of the world (Gorz ; Illich ; Latouche ;
and Mosangini ).
To honour this tradition, current concerns that degrowth may
be co-opted by stronger forces must be accompanied by concerns
about degrowth co-opting allied actors and movements. Dengler
and Seebacher (, ) make that message clear in response to
common misconceptions: “degrowth is not to be misunderstood as
a proposal from the Global North imposed on the Global South,
but rather a Northern supplement to Southern concepts, movements
and lines of thought. It is therefore imperative for degrowth to seek
alliances with these Southern ‘fellow travellers’”.
In sum, alliances among fellow travellers working towards
degrowth, decolonisation, deracialisation, and depatriarchisation
synergise to resist the ongoing imposition of certain universal
models. In complementary processes, mutual learning among
travellers forging healthier identities and paths nourish what the
Zapatistas call “a world that encompasses many worlds”.
Across places and social groups
Degrowth strategies have long involved active learning from – and with
– groups struggling to sustain old and to forge new paths away from
growth (Gezon and Paulson ). is includes conversations with
participants in ecological swaraj in India, ubuntu in South Africa,
Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, and millennial Christian
traditions of simple communal life, revitalised in contexts ranging
from North American spiritual communities to Latin American
responses to Pope Francis’ On Care for our Common Home (Beling
and Vanhulst ).
Escobar () points to a convergence between degrowth in the
North and post-development in Latin America. Emerging from
dierent intellectual traditions and operating through dierent
epistemic and political practices, they similarly combine radical
questioning of economic expansionism with visions of alternative
worlds that prioritise ecological integrity and social justice. Yet,
even sincere commitments to dialogue across these dierences
meet obstacles. In interviews with environmental justice activists,
Rodríguez-Labajos and colleagues found that “in parts of Africa,
Latin America and many other regions of the Global South,
including poor and marginalised communities in Northern
countries, the term degrowth is not appealing, and does not match
people’s demands” (, ).
ese observations raise strategic challenges around vocabulary.
We start by acknowledging that decades of degrowth research has
produced universalising analyses of the global economy couched
in Western scientic logic and expressed through specialised jargon
– including the word degrowth itself. is awareness supports a
conscious pivot in communication among actors with dierent logics
and vocabularies when it comes to building strategies, dened in
this book as thought constructs, with associated actions, embedded
in a specic context. Chapter , “Why social equity is the key to
degrowth,” nourishes such eorts.
Another challenge raised here is to recognise dierences within
regions and groups. Amid current global dependencies, for example,
many governments and households welcome access to income from
international agribusinesses, sweatshops, electronic waste, and other
ventures. At the same time, the , conicts documented to date in
the Environmental Justice Atlas demonstrate that many people living
with very low incomes organise to resist initiatives for economic
development, including mines, dams, oil-wells, ranches, factories,
plantations, and highways. Participants in the global network
Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance struggle with ways to respond to
structural positions, while recognising that not all colonised people
(nor all women, all whites, all Global North or South, etc.) can be
understood as a single position or voice. Although racism has been
explicitly recognised by environmental justice scholars and activists,
serious work still needs to be done on the roles that racialisation and
white privilege play in dynamics that drive growth, as well as in those
that may support just and equitable degrowth (Tyberg ).
Valuable lessons can be learned from dierent logics and dynamics
of change-making. For decades, for example, small farmers in various
parts of the world have collaborated to forge alternatives to the
green revolution by drawing on local knowledges, ritual agroecology
practices, and environmental management regimes less based on the
domination of humans over other nature. Slowly, through reciprocal
visits, participatory gatherings, and other interactions, hundreds of
nodes have been woven into horizontal networks of mutual learning
and action, such as La Via Campesina
(La Via Campesina n.d.) and
Movimiento Agroecológico Campesino-a-Campesino (FAO ).
Soil made fertile with these alliances has nurtured reciprocal care
and given rise to direct actions to resist extractivist expansion. In
Latin America, conceptualizations of Sumak Kawsay/Buen Vivir have
inuenced programmes, policies, and even national constitutions
that institutionalise the rights of nature. ese impulses have not
played out free from conict and contradictions of political power.
Chapter provides tools to think about these processes as strategies
that not only seek to escape degrading relations and systems of
production, but also interact to build forms of resistance to the
development of industry, and perhaps lead to taming or dismantling
aspects of global food systems. ese hope-giving processes
encounter stubborn constraints in landscapes marked by inequitable
power systems. No matter how vibrant and constructive, alliances
of small producers around the world are a long way from halting
degrading incursions into their territories and lives by extractivist
governments and corporations.
Horizontal mobilising for multi-scale political change
More horizontal models for strengthening coordination and impact
can help to contextualise and to question worldviews colonised
by hierarchies and divided by dierences. Valuable examples are
found in networks and roots that Indigenous, marginalised, and
other people have built as both ends and means to defend diverse
lifeworlds.
Nirmal and Rocheleau () oer metaphors of rootstocks
that extend on or under the soil surface and develop mutually
nourishing nodes from which new shoots extend vertically,
exemplied by rhizomes, through which plants like bamboo and
poison ivy reproduce and expand. e Call to Participate in the 8
th
International Degrowth Conference in e Hague (2021), Caring
Communities for Radical Change (Undisciplined Environments ),
creatively combined the organic metaphor of mycelium, the body of
mushrooms and other fungi, with the mandala, the ancient symbol
of wholeness.
Our mycelium mandala represents the vegetative part of a
fungus; it is known for being full of life – connecting a rapidly
developing underground system. Mycelia play a crucial role
in the decomposition of old forms of life. ey decompose
dead organic matter, making nutrients available again for the
system and its growing life forms. It is a wonderful emblem
for degrowth, a social movement that ranges from ecology to
spirituality (from the soil to the soul).
Degrowth rootstocks can be nourished by enhancing synergies
already operating among values, visions, and actions that are
harboured and circulated through subterranean networks. One
network that is self-organised in non-hierarchical ways – degrowth.
info – writes in Chapter about creating spaces for coordination,
exchange, and learning within the degrowth movement. Such
eorts prepare the ground for activating more visible sprouts of
cultural, civic, and political action in response to openings that
emerge from unexpected events and cracks in the system. is type
of network-building is hard to eradicate. Even when visible ventures
are frustrated, pieces of rhizome or mycelia – in this case, degrowth
values, practices, and relationships – are left behind in the soil where
they grow and emerge in new manifestations.
Such are dynamics fostered by the “Global Tapestry of
Alternatives”, dedicated to creating inclusive horizontal spaces
of exchange and solidarity among widely ranging alternatives to
dominant regimes driven by capitalist, patriarchal, racist, statist, and
anthropocentric forces. By activating diverse logics, languages, and
other ways of communicating, participants weave together already
existing communal or collective webs, join in regional and global
encounters, and develop synergistic linkages with organisations like
the World Social Forum.
Conclusion
Degrowth visions and actions are nourished by and take root among
many practices and contexts, ranging from long-established spiritual
beliefs and everyday life in low-income communities to major
research institutions and political leadership. Contributors to this
book push for more strategic interactions among scales, realms, and
types of action in order to support progress towards emancipatory
social-ecological transformation. Yet, even amid passionately shared
purposes, collaborations are constrained and sometimes derailed
by tensions between pushes to better coordinate towards desired
outcomes and the plurality of perspectives, logics, and plans
involved.
To support constructive engagement across positions, places, and
scales, this chapter does not encourage degrowth advocates to take
centralised control of process and direction, nor does it suggest
engaging with all comers in indeterminate interactions. Instead, this
chapter explores ongoing practices and potentials of specic types of
interactions across dierence: entanglements that strategically engage
in instructive dialogues across places and social groups, strategically
acknowledge positioning within hierarchical systems of power, and
strategically build horizontal alliances nourished through mutual
ows of ideas and resources.
Conceptual and analytic tools developed in Part I of this book,
together with attention to power and dierence in alliances of
mutual learning encouraged by this chapter, are designed to
strengthen thought and action around a variety of initiatives.
Tangible cases and eorts presented in the next section, Part II,
oer opportunities to connect these insights with cases and eorts
involving money, nance, trade, decolonisation, housing, food,
agriculture, energy, technology, and more.
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Strategies in practice
Provisioning sectors
Chapter : Food
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of food
By Christina Plank
20
Food is a basic need but also a driver of injustice globally. On the
one hand, food provisioning is necessary for our survival on the
planet. On the other hand, the current corporate food regime
contributes to environmental decline and social disruptions. e
climate crisis and the tremendous loss of biodiversity, land grabs,
or farmers’ protests are just some examples of these developments
(Franco and Borras ; Plank et al. under review; van der Ploeg
). Food is crucial for degrowth and the degrowth movement for
several reasons. First, degrowth advocates for putting the basic needs
of people at the core of the economy and policies. Second, degrowth
literature and activists often refer to food because there are a lot of
food-related projects in degrowth practices (Nelson and Edwards
; Vandeventer et al. ). ird, people who are not part of the
degrowth movement can easily relate to food activities connected to
degrowth. is can be and is helpful in getting more people engaged
with initiatives working towards social-ecological transformation.
e following contribution gives an overview of what strategies
can be adopted to foster degrowth’s food agenda. Food is here
understood to cover all parts of the food system, i.e., the production,
distribution and consumption of food. In order to analyse the
existing literature on food and degrowth, I draw on the approach
to degrowth strategy suggested by Chertkovskaya (Chapter ).
Chertkovskaya applies Erik Olin Wright’s () framework of
ruptural, interstitial, and symbiotic modes of transformation to
the degrowth movement. In particular, she emphasises the role of
20 I would like to thank the editor and the reviewer of this chapter for their helpful comments.
is research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (ZK–64G).
ruptural strategies in their temporal and small-scale dimension,
which would also need to be considered to facilitate interstitial
and symbiotic strategies. Drawing on this literature, I dierentiate
strategic logics and highlight what actors, places, times, and scales
are involved in them. Since most food initiatives employ several
strategies, this is an ideal-typical typology. However, this reection
on the dierent foci of the movement can help with getting a clearer
picture of where the emphasis of food-related practices is today and
how they could be developed in the future.
Escaping capitalism by building alternatives and resistance
Most food initiatives mentioned in the degrowth literature (e.g.,
Kallis and March ; Nelson and Edwards ; Brossmann and
Islar ) can be assigned to strategies that build alternatives on
the local level such as urban gardening initiatives, food cooperatives,
community-supported agriculture, or eco-villages. By building
these local alternatives they try to escape capitalist structures and
are therefore interstitial strategies. ese initiatives are linked to
degrowth principles such as autonomy, commoning, or conviviality
(Nelson and Edwards ) and are practised within a rather small
community. Usually, they are locally anchored, grassroots-driven,
and can be found at the urban or peri-urban scale.
ese food alternatives exist in all parts of Europe, but not all
actors involved identify themselves as belonging to the degrowth
movement and some are not familiar with the idea of degrowth.
is is particularly the case for self-food-provisioning practices
in Central Europe. Daněk and Jehlička () have characterised
these practices as “quiet” because they are not perceived as a form
of activism, but rather they draw on a long tradition of allotments
and home gardens. Whereas in degrowth initiatives actors are
rather young and middle-class, the self-food-provisioning practices
are socially more inclusive because they are carried out by a wider
public, i.e., in the case of the Czech Republic by almost of
households. However, these households do not aim for changing
the economic system but rather see it as a leisure activity (Daněk
and Jehlička ). Despite criticisms such as those claiming that
gardening cannot be considered a political action, initiatives like
urban gardening can function as political work towards social-
ecological transformation. For example, by cultivating vegetables and
experiencing change in the city, degrowth can be practised and lived
(Müller ). It can furthermore be perceived as a practical example
of decommodication that establishes alternative provisioning
systems outside of capitalist markets, which is a central element of
degrowth.
Furthermore, it is important to note that these food initiatives are
often connected to other activities that respond to the fullment
of basic needs; in other words, dierent provisioning systems are
or can be linked with each other. is is for example the case for
co-housing projects that include food shops or shared cooking
responsibilities among the dierent co-housing partners. ese
shared responsibilities can imply time-saving possibilities where
the time gained could be used, for example, for relaxation or
taking better care of children (Lietaert ). How the patriarchal
organisation of society and in this way reproductive work inuences
alternative projects like food cooperatives, however, still needs to be
better explored (Homs et al. ).
Such food initiatives, i.e., urban gardening initiatives, food coops,
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), eco-villages, are often
considered to be niche projects. Even if these practices are shared
with allied movements, such as the movement for food sovereignty
which the case study below focuses on, there is, rst of all the
challenge to merely exist and survive within the capitalist system
and, second, the danger of staying in a niche. Some alternative
food networks like CSA initiatives in Austria do not aim to get out
of their niche because they do not have the necessary economic,
political and time resources (Plank et al. ). Perhaps some even
prefer to remain small-scale because it makes it easier to maintain a
relaxed atmosphere, trust-based cooperation or to make decisions.
Others, in turn, try to engage with municipalities to create a wider
impact such as in the case of urban food councils or other public
procurement initiatives (see again the case study below). Overall,
there is a rather strong focus on the individual, household level, on
movements, and on networks (Nelson and Edwards, ). ere is
a void in the literature on regional and national levels, in that the
literature does not address the role of the state, with the exception
of the case of Cuban agriculture. Biollat et al. () argue that
theoretically, the Cuban economy is better suited for degrowth
agroecology than capitalist economies because the accumulation
of capital is restricted. However, they also point out that Cuban
agroecology would work even better with more democracy, providing
more rights to small-scale farmers’ cooperatives.
Resisting capitalism has not been the focus of the literature
on food and degrowth but has been dealt with in critical agrarian
studies. is literature explores movements against land grabbing
and land concentration in Europe and in the Global South, activism
for food and seed sovereignty and against genetically modied
organisms, or forms of “everyday resistance” of peasants (Franco
and Borras ; Scott, ; Peschard and Randeria ; Larsson
; Hall et al. ). Here, it is social movements, often from
the Global South, who resist displacement and the destruction
of their livelihoods. is is triggered by a form of agro-industrial
development that dominates the corporate food regime (McMichael
). However, resistance can also take place in the Global
North. An example of this, explored by the case study below, is the
cooperative in Mals in South Tyrol which stood up against the use of
pesticides via a referendum. More attention should thus be paid to
these dierent possible forms of resistance to advance degrowth.
Taming and dismantling capitalism
Symbiotic strategies can only be found in the literature that uses
degrowth as an analytical framework. e modes of transformation
of taming and dismantling capitalism are directed towards
changing institutions from within the capitalist system. In the case
of degrowth and food, they have been connected to the shaping
of dierent policies. For example, degrowth has been used as a
framework to investigate the European Union’s policies, including
food policies, through a degrowth lens, such as examining the
extent to which the European Green Deal is driven by green
growth (Ossewaarde and Ossewaarde-Lowtoo ). Likewise,
the concept of “blue degrowth” has served to critically analyse the
European Union’s sheries policies oriented towards blue growth,
namely, considering the sea as a potential site of economic growth
(Hadjimichael ). Yet, degrowth has so far not been used for
developing alternative food policies, and concrete suggestions for
how to transform and dismantle food policies are absent in the
literature.
Concrete suggestions for transforming policies, however, have
been advanced by allies of the degrowth movement, for example,
the movement for food sovereignty (Salzer and Fehlinger ; see
also the case study below). As an intervention into the negotiations
of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy – crucial
for dening the conditions of the food system – food sovereignty
movement actors recently called for doubling the amount of money
received as a direct payment for the rst hectares of farmland
(ÖBV ). is would ensure access to land for small-scale farmers
in the European Union and help regulate the agricultural system.
With respect to policy suggestions that do not only tame but also
dismantle the system, the cooperation among dierent actors from
dierent elds like the scientic community, social movement, and
practitioners would be crucial to advance dierent strategies – as
exemplied by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable
Food Systems (IPES-Food) (see the case study below).
An interesting example at the national scale is the commitment of
the French Ministry of Agriculture to agroecology (France. Ministry
of Agriculture ). Here, the aim is to assist the majority of
farmers to make the transition to agroecology by . If radically
performed, this could lead to dismantling current structures.
Another example comes from the Indian state of Sikkim, which
already transitioned to organic agriculture through policy
changes by phasing out chemical fertilisers and pesticides and
banning the latter from the state (Heindorf ). By learning from
these examples, the degrowth movement could not only expand its
strategic toolkit but also explore how niche projects can be scaled up.
Future research and strategy building would benet from an
even stronger tie with the food sovereignty movement and critical
agrarian studies. In this way, the degrowth movement could consider
strategies that operate beyond the local scale, and more diverse
transformational strategies could be employed. From an academic
perspective, Gerber () has pointed out that a mutual exchange
between scientic communities would be desirable. By referring
to “agrarian degrowth”, he points to a possible common research
agenda. is could entail researching how economic growth has
shaped the countryside, how social metabolism shapes biophysical
limits and the role of building alliances with social movements.
Furthermore, from a global perspective, the role of Indigenous
people would be particularly important to consider regarding non-
growth oriented alternative imaginaries and food practices.
Halting and smashing capitalism
Ruptural strategies are characterised by actions that seek to halt
or smash capitalism. Chertkovskaya (Chapter ) refers to acts of
disobedience as examples of halting capitalism, while she uses
the example of occupying and running a factory to illustrate
what smashing capitalism can look like. Both of these modes of
transformation have not been focused on much in the literature
on degrowth and food, nor have they been explored much in
the degrowth movement. Yet, the occupation of elds, often as
a temporal activity, can be thought of as a ruptural strategy for
halting capitalism. For instance, in Austria, the collective, SoliLa!
(Solidarisch Landwirtschaften) has reclaimed some elds in Vienna to
gain access to land for growing vegetables. By occupying elds the
collective further problematises land speculation and the increasing
rate of sealing of soil – the covering up of soil through, for example,
concretisation or urban development (Möhrs et al. ). In France
near Nantes, local farmers and activists have squatted an agricultural
area that was intended for the development of an airport for several
decades. ey also built local alternatives on the ground (Pieper
). As Chertkovskaya points out, these small-scale, temporary
ruptural actions can enable or support further interstitial strategies,
for example, land occupation can provide access to land.
Where dierent structures of oppression (such as capitalism, but
also colonialism and extractivism) come into play, land questions
have been pressing, and ruptural strategies have been employed on
a long-term basis. Here, the landless workers’ movement in Brazil
(MST, for Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra in Portuguese)
is certainly one of the best-known examples of ghting against
capitalism through occupying land (Hammond and Rossi ).
In view of the deepening climate crisis, social-ecological issues, and
problems related to the access, ownership, and use of land will also
become acute in the Global North. e urgency to ght not only
for alternative ways of food systems but also, for example, against the
sealing of soil or increasing CO emissions through aviation as the
cases of SoliLa or Nantes have shown, are already clear contemporary
examples of initiatives that will become even more prevalent in
the future. More generally, there will be a need to grapple with the
dynamics and challenges associated with urban sprawl, which is
followed by more trac as well as more infrastructure like shops
and supermarkets. Hence, there will be increasing emissions
but less soil available for agriculture, water retention, or carbon
sequestration; all of which will become even more important with
the exacerbating climate crisis. Stronger alliances with the climate
justice movement and social movements from the Global South
would not only broaden the spectrum of strategies but would also
allow these movements to better support each other in re-structuring
the economic and political system towards a global degrowth society.
Conclusion
To summarise, most degrowth food initiatives can be seen as
interstitial strategies that build alternatives on the local, urban
and peri-urban level, which do not necessarily aim to scale up.
e state represents almost a void in the literature on degrowth
and food. Symbiotic strategies can only be found in the literature
where degrowth serves as an analytical framework, but where this
framework is not used for developing alternative policy proposals.
Ruptural strategies for transformation are absent in degrowth and
food literature. Within academia, the degrowth community could be
more engaged with critical agrarian studies, particularly for exploring
symbiotic strategies, which aim at dismantling the capitalist system.
For concrete actions regarding symbiotic and ruptural strategies, the
more activist-led part of the degrowth movement can learn from
other social movements like the food sovereignty or the climate
justice movement. e former is experienced in dealing with
symbiotic strategies – which, in the context of the European Union,
often means being preoccupied with the Common Agricultural
Policy. By joining forces and strengthening their ties even more, both
the degrowth and the food sovereignty movement might also be able
to focus on dismantling these policies. From a global perspective,
a stronger alliance with the food sovereignty movement could also
strengthen the Global South perspective within degrowth. Finally,
the use of temporal, small-scale ruptural strategies might increase in
the future within the degrowth movement if it allies with the climate
justice movement as a response to the increasingly severe climate
crisis which can now also be more directly experienced in the Global
North and which increases the pressure for urgent transformation.
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A case in the eld of food: the movement for food
sovereignty
By Julianna Fehlinger, Elisabeth Jost and Lisa Francesca Rail
We require a fundamental reorientation towards degrowing food
systems around the globe – for the sake of soils, biodiversity, human
health, animal well-being, and the fullment of rural livelihoods.
In our contribution, we show that such a reorientation needs
to be addressed on diverse levels simultaneously: on the scale of
regional and city governments, of nation-states, of supranational
organisations like the European Union (EU), or of international
trade agreements. Furthermore, degrowing food systems must tackle
issues related to production, distribution, and consumption.
Movements of resistance against intensied agrarian production
have brought up a variety of alternative projects engaged in
sustainable food futures. is diverse vibrancy holds great potential
for alliances with the degrowth movement. As organisers of the panel
on food at the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference: Strategies for Social-
ecological Transformation, we aimed to represent this potential. We
invited speakers from La Via Campesina, the International Panel
of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), Copenhagen
House of Food, and the citizens’ cooperative in Mals, Italy.
In this chapter, we present these initiatives, which operate on dierent
spatial scales and are engaged in a variety of activities, such as knowledge
production and educational work, public procurement, and bottom-up
movements for alternative regional development. Drawing on Ekaterina
Chertkovskaya’s understanding of the modes of transformation (Chapter
) the examples can be described as interstitial and as symbiotic in
their endeavours. ey all strive towards food sovereignty, meaning
the people’s right to determine how food is produced, distributed, and
consumed – in other words, the right to democratically shape one’s own
agricultural system without harming others or the environment (La Via
Campesina ). We start by introducing the wider food sovereignty
context before delving into the examples.
e movement for food sovereignty: an open bracket
Food sovereignty as a concept was rst presented in at the
World Food Summit of the Food and Agriculture Organisation
of the United Nations (FAO) by La Via Campesina, a global
organisation of peasants, rural workers, shing communities, landless
and Indigenous peoples. La Via Campesina is a strong transnational
movement, which opposes the neoliberal tendencies that restrict the
livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers and that are worsening
the situation of hungry people all over the globe. With over
million members, it is one of the largest social movements in the
world.
La Via Campesina realised that the transformation of agricultural
and food systems could only be achieved through alliances with
other movements – and thus the Nyéléni Food Sovereignty
Movement was born. In , the rst international Nyéléni
Forum brought together environmental organisations, human
rights organisations, consumer networks, women’s movements,
and urban movements. Together, they developed and dened the
principles of food sovereignty as an answer to the technical term
“food security” coined by the FAO, which fails to address a number
of political questions concerning our food systems. Food sovereignty,
instead,addresses the power structures that embed our food system;
it addresses the conditions of food production, distribution, and
consumption; it addresses the consequences of our production
methods for future generations, and it places the people who
produce and consume food products at centre stage (Patel ).
An essential feature of the Nyéléni process is the participation
of marginalised social groups, including farmers – who typically
nd it dicult to access political processes – and those aected by
poverty. Such broad alliances are possible within the Nyéléni Food
Sovereignty Movement because they are centred around the needs
and concerns of those aected. ey allow politically excluded
people to formulate and enact their interests asan act of practical
solidarity (Nyéléni ).
Today the vision of food sovereignty is inspiring a growing
number of social actors: civil society, local municipalities, scientists,
entrepreneurs in the food system, and even national and EU-policy
makers. Although the concept is often captured for green washing,
the necessity for a social-ecological transformation of our food
systems is omnipresent. e Nyéléni Food Sovereignty Movement
seeks to enable a transformation through three dierent but
complementary strategies: Resist – Transform – Build alternatives.
e remainder of this chapter will turn in more detail to the
variegated strategies followed by movements identifying with food
sovereignty at dierent administrative scales. e conclusion will
then pick up the diverse threads laid out in the case examples, to
draw together insights on transformative strategies concerning the
food system.
IPES-Food: knowledge-production at the EU level
A group of renowned thinkers from the scientic community, civil
society, and social movements established the International Panel
of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) in . e
consortium publishes scientic reports and policy recommendations
fostering a holistic perspective on sustainable reform in food and
agriculture, i.e., accounting for the whole supply chain including
production, processing, retail, and consumption. eir systemic
analyses disclose the increasing concentration of power in the hands
of large private agribusiness corporations (IPES-Food ; a)
and show how the industrialisation of our food and agriculture
system has led to a large-scale, highly competitive, and uniformised
agrarian structure (de Schutter ). IPES-Food also highlights
the long-standing misalignment of European policies (regarding
agriculture, but also environment, health, employment, trade, and
investment), which target dierent segments of the food chain. is
misalignment led to the known sustainability challenges associated
with agriculture today: the tremendous decline of small-scale
producers, the dependence on external inputs (e.g., agrochemicals,
synthetic fertilisers, fossil fuels, vulnerable and thus exploitable
labour force), climate change, agrobiodiversity loss, soil organic
carbon loss, as well as a low-cost food economy driving increasing
rates of obesity (IPES-Food b).
In , the IPES-Food initiated a participatory process together
with over farmers, food entrepreneurs, civil society activists,
scientists, and policy-makers to push for a comprehensive, integrated
Common Food Policy for the EU (IPES-Food ). ey call for
a reappraisal of the power of social innovations in agriculture (e.g.,
community supported agriculture) and aim for re-localisation
of European food systems. Accordingly, EU food policy should
enable coordinated change through trans-sectoral governance,
the implementation of social and ecological conditions in trade
agreements based on the Human Right to Food, and the active
incentivisation of agroecological practices (IPES-Food ). Apart
from shaping a democratic food environment, this would further
enable the reduction of negative social and environmental impacts
imposed on extra-EU territories (cf. FIAN International ; Fritz
).
e IPES-Food’s strategy to inuence policy-making by anchoring
the expertise of, for example, smallholder farmers, Indigenous
peoples, and social movements in participatory scientic knowledge
production, is valuable for transformative action. e works of the
IPES-Food contribute to the Degrowth debate, as they foster a
paradigm shift in food systems thinking and food policy formulation
(IPES-Food ). Using Chertovskaya’s terms (Chapter ), these
proposals help to foster a symbiotic transformation by contributing
to the conversation on how to dismantle capitalism. IPES-Food
oers feasible solutions apart from a capitalist logic, which is
framed by re-localised economic activity while manoeuvring within
planetary boundaries. IPES-Food proposes a food policy that enables
decent, equitable working conditions along food supply chains,
diversied production, access to healthy food, and the protection of
natural resources (cf. Azam ).
Copenhagen House of Food and Changing Food:
public procurement in a city
e project Copenhagen House of Food, established in by the
municipality of Copenhagen, was based on the realisation that city
governments, as large-scaled food procurers for public canteens, have
the power to profoundly re-shape the food product market – and
thus also to transform agricultural production (Nielsen ). At
that time, the City of Copenhagen ran about public kitchens
for kindergartens, retirement homes, employee canteens or social
housing, serving approximately , meals per day. e vision of
the Copenhagen House of Food was to raise the percentage of organic,
high-quality produce distributed through Copenhagen’s kitchens to
at least without raising the municipality’s procurement budget.
e project succeeded and subsequently increased the target, rst to
, and later to . By , the average percentage was for
all publicly funded meals in Copenhagen (Ibid.). rough education
campaigns for kitchen sta and procurement ocers, employees were
trained in cooking from scratch, and processed products were replaced
by unprocessed ones. Meat and sh were reduced and substituted
for a higher diversity in seasonal vegetables, fruits and tubers. As this
improved the taste of the served meals, it also led to reductions in food
waste, which again contributed to decreased spendings (Ibid.).
Due to a cut in municipal funding, the Copenhagen House of
Food closed in , but its legacy lives on in the procurement and
cooking style of Copenhagen’s kitchens (Ibid.). Additionally, the
story of Copenhagen has inspired other cities like Berlin or Tallinn
to follow the city’s model. Members of the former Copenhagen
House of Food have founded the organisation Changing Food (see
Changing Food n.d.) that now advises projects that aspire to follow
Copenhagen’s example. is shows that movements towards food
sovereignty involve not only farms as sites of production, but also
nodes of buying and distribution, processing and cooking, public
education, and consumption. It also reminds us of the interstitial
transformative role public agencies can take in building alternatives.
Mals and Upper Vinschgau: a pesticide-free region
e village of Mals and the wider region of Upper Vinschgau in
South Tyrol, Italy, is not only an impressive example of eective,
bottom-up resistance against hegemonic trends of agricultural
intensication but also for a site of democratically crafted
alternatives. As such it provides practical visions of how to degrow
rural landscapes and livelihoods. In the early s, the people of
Mals had witnessed the increased spread of monoculture apple
plantations with a high input of synthetic pesticides. Villagers
started to observe and analyse the resulting conicts between organic
and non-organic apple farmers, the detrimental eects on people’s
health, a steep rise in land prices, and the profound aesthetic and
functional restructuring of the cultural landscape that arose. ey
decided to claim their right to democratic control over processes so
deeply aecting their everyday lives and futures. In , a plebiscite
(Volksabstimmung) was held in which the vast majority () voted
for a pesticide-free region, a will that the mayor was subsequently
charged with implementing in the form of a safety distance
regulation. is would not de jure but de facto have made the use
of pesticides almost impossible. is act of resistance did not remain
unchallenged: a court case led by farmers supporting agro-industrial
production that questions the legitimacy of the municipality’s ban on
the use of chemicals is still ongoing (Holtkamp ).
In , in addition to this tenacious resistance, several initiatives
from the area founded the „da”
– a citizen cooperative that works
on a sustainable future for the region with the goal of providing a
good life for all. e cooperative’s approach is holistic: its projects
include small-scale farming and local crafts, integrative models for
tourism, support for local markets and trade, as well as cultural and
educational events. Its members stress that democratic control over
the ecological, economic, cultural, and social futures of a region
needs to be claimed back by the people who live there in order to
21 e full name is: Bürger*innengenossenschaft Obervinschgau „da“/Cooperativa di
comunità Alta Val Venosta „da“
craft creative and truly resilient development models (da, n.d.; Der
Malser Weg ; Schiebel ).
Conclusion
e examples show that dierent initiatives employ a variety
of strategies when aiming for food sovereignty. Symbiotic
transformations can be found in the IPES-Food initiative, which
aims to inform EU policies with knowledge-based recommendations
on how to shape democratic food systems and dismantle capitalist
agroindustry. Interstitial transformations can be spotted in the work
of the Copenhagen House of Food and the regional cooperative in
Mals, which build alternatives on a municipal and regional level.
e last example is particularly interesting because it combines
resisting with constructing alternatives. Overall, this reects the
strategic approach of the Nyéléni Food Sovereignty movement, i.e.,
simultaneously resisting, transforming, and building alternatives.
Growing food and degrowing food systems should thus follow this
mix of strategies to approach social-ecological transformation.
References
Azam, Geneviéve. . „Degrowth.“ In Systemwandel: Alternativen zum globalen
Kapitalismus, edited by Pablo Solón, –. Wien, Berlin: Mandelbaum.
Changing Food. n.d. Changing Food: Copenhagen Food System Centre. https://www.
changingfood.dk/.
Da. n.d. da – Die Bürger*Genossenschaft Obervinschgau-Genossenschaft. https://da.bz.
it/.
Der Malser Weg. . Der Malser Weg. https://www.der-malser-weg.com/en/.
De Schutter, Olivier. . “Degrowing the Food Sector: How to Build Democratic
Food Policies.” Presentation held at the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference, Vienna
on May , . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMKQpoZsF.
FIAN International. . Land Grabbing and Human Rights. e Role of EU Actors
Abroad. Heidelberg: FIAN International for the Hands on the Land for Food
Sovereignty Alliance.
Fritz, omas. . Globalising Hunger: Food Security and the EU’s Common Agricul-
tural Policy (CAP). Berlin: FDCL-Verlag.
Holtkamp, Carolin. . Der Malser Weg: Geschichte einer sozialen Bewegung für
Demokratie und nachhaltige Regionalentwicklung. Kassel: Kassel University Press.
IPES-Food. . e New Science of Sustainable Food Systems: Overcoming Barriers to
Food Systems Reform. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.
http://www.IPES-Food.org/_img/upload/les/NewScienceofSusFood.pdf.
IPES-Food. . From Uniformity to Diversity: A Paradigm Shift from Industrial
Agriculture to Diversied Agroecological Systems. International Panel of Experts on
Sustainable Food Systems. http://www.IPES-Food.org/_img/upload/les/Unifor-
mityToDiversity_FULL.pdf.
IPES-Food. a. Too Big to Feed: Exploring the Impacts of Mega-Mergers, Consoli-
dation and Concentration of Power in the Agri-Food Sector. International Panel of
Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. https://www.IPES-Food.org/_img/upload/
les/Concentration_FullReport.pdf.
IPES-Food. b. Unravelling the Food-Health Nexus: Addressing Practices, Political
Economy, and Power Relations to Build Healthier Food Systems. International Panel
of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. http://www.IPES-Food.org/_img/up-
load/les/Health_FullReport().pdf.
IPES-Food. . Towards a Common Food Policy for the EU. International Panel of
Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. https://www.IPES-Food.org/_img/upload/
les/CFP_FullReport.pdf.
IPES-Food. . A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045. Inter-
national Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.http://www.IPES-Food.
org/_img/upload/les/LongFoodMovementEN.pdf.
La Via Campesina. . “Food Sovereignty.” La Via Campesina, January , .
https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty/.
Nielsen, Line R. . “Degrowing the Food Sector: How to Build Democratic
Food Policies.” Presentation held at the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference, Vienna
on May , . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMKQpoZsF.
Nyéléni. . Nyéléni 2007: Forum for Food Sovereignty. https://nyeleni.org/
DOWNLOADS/Nyelni_EN.pdf.
Patel, Raj. . “Food Sovereignty.” e Journal of Peasant Studies , : –.
Schiebel, Alexander. . Das Wunder von Mals: Der Agrarlobby Widerstand leisten.
Wunderwerkstatt. http://wundervonmals.com/.
Chapter : Urban housing
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of urban housing
By Gabu Heindl
Homelessness exists not because the system is failing to work as it should,
but because the system is working as it must.
Peter Marcuse (1988)
e dominant policy approach to housing worldwide has been an
unquestioned pro-growth agenda within capitalist market logic: to
stimulate more, faster and possibly cheaper housing construction.
New housing – even if it is social housing – on greeneld sites (i.e.,
undeveloped land) is generally accompanied by soil sealing (where
the soil is covered over with impermeable construction) for the
creation of roads, parking lots, and so on.
22
An alarming number of
newly built housing units are not at all constructed for addressing
the housing crises, but to serve as abstract nancial products (Aigner
). is phenomenon is a part of the broader process of the
nancialisation of housing, where housing is increasingly becoming a
speculative commodity. Individual owner-occupiers purchase a home
not only for “long-term secure housing but also as a quasi-asset (…)
home-cum-commodity” (Nelson ). In addition to speculation
on urban real estate, today’s platform capitalism is contributing to
the dissection of housing into many potential capital assets, techno-
commodifying the home and urban space through schemes like
AirBnB, private car hiring platforms such as Uber, home delivery,
and dating apps (Terranova ).
22 United Nations Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik denes the Right to Adequate Housing
as a combination of rights to spatial, environmental and infrastructural security (Rolnik
2014).
e increased attention to ecological issues within housing has
opened up yet another terrain for capital. Ecological retrotting leads
to increases in rental costs, with “ecological gentrication” (Dooling
) causing evictions in the name of ecology. Ecological claims
often reveal an imbalance between, on the one hand, those who can
and want to aord ecological measures and, on the other, those for
whom high environmental standards are not aordable or may even
come to pose existential threats.
Most technical solutions to the environmental dimension of
housing, such as the decarbonisation of the housing sector – itself
an important goal – still operates within the connes of pro-
growth hegemonic ideology. Critical literature links decarbonisation
measures on the one side to “rebound eects” driven by the auent
(Sunikka-Blank et al. ) and on the other side to “fuel poverty”,
“energy poverty”, and housing poverty (Boardman ). Together,
this creates an “eco-social paradox” (Holm ). As long as housing
remains a commodity and speculative asset regardless of social justice
considerations, “greening” housing alone will not lead to housing
and climate justice. In order to overcome the eco-social paradox, the
degrowth movement must study and draw its conclusions from the
history of housing struggles, socialist housing developments, rent
strikes, class struggle and intersectionality.
“System change, not climate change” – so goes one of the more
evocative slogans of the climate justice movement. Likewise,
the issue of housing requires the dismantling of various existing
paradigms. Yet, with every crisis, we are presented with new TINA
(“ere Is No Alternative”) arguments for why paradigm change is
impossible.
A key political approach for degrowth housing is that of radical
democracy – the idea that we need to ght for even more democracy
and democratic rights. is is exactly because neoliberalism and
authoritarianism impose the idea that, mostly relying on economic
logic, democracy is not possible (Moue ). In contrast to a
market-based approach towards housing, the radical democratic
approach aspires to housing justice. Housing justice emphasises
intergenerational considerations, acknowledging that the rights of
future generations are dependent on how our generation uses limited
resources. Hence, the complex question is: how can social justice
in housing be achieved while reducing the ecological impacts of
housing?
A radical democracy framework is open to both strategies from
within democratic institutions, as well as from the margins or the
outside – and most of all for (often unexpected) alliances in between.
In my book on radical democracy in architecture and urbanism
(Heindl ), I laid out how the diversity of actors in housing
struggles may act on three dierent levels: (institutional) politics,
planning, and popular agency – and, whenever possible, through
interactions between these dierent levels.
23
In other words, politics
may be called “top-down” and popular agency “bottom-up”, with
planning operating in between.
e aim of this chapter, which is structured along these three
levels, is to provide an overview of tangible strategies for the social-
ecological transformation of urban housing. In the hope of turning
what is sometimes diagnosed as a “strategic indeterminance” of the
degrowth movement (Herbert et al. ) into a progressive and
transformative bundle of strategies, we will look at specic strategies
– those that were experimented with in the past, those being enacted
today, and those that do not yet exist. e early
th
-century housing
policy of Red Vienna and the present-day Vienna Housing Model
will serve as the main guiding examples.
Politics
Housing and communication policies of historic Red Vienna
In order to address the current housing crises, we can look at and
(critically) draw from historical social(ist) housing policies, such as
23 ese dierent levels relate to, but are slightly dierent from the strategic logics outlined
by Erik Olin Wright (ruptural, interstitial, and symbiotic; see Chapter 2).
Red Vienna’s progressive social democratic housing politics of the
interwar years (–), which was based on Austro-Marxist
theory. During this period, Vienna’s municipal housing programme
pursued multiple objectives: supporting workers through decent and
sanitary living, combined with public education infrastructure that
supported political consciousness-raising in the working class, as well
as the development of a sense of community.
Possibly the most essential housing policies were (and still are)
tenant protections. Red Vienna inherited tenant protection as a
reaction to the housing crises during World War I and it became
a crucial precondition for the Red Vienna housing programme.
It encompassed a set of tenant rights and a high level of rent
control, such as setting caps on rent at quite a low level, security
of the duration of rent and the possibility to hand over the at
within a family. ese policies were complemented by a housing
requisition law (the Wohnungsanforderungsgesetz), which allowed
the municipality to claim and take over unused private housing for
those in need. As a result of both, private investors did not see a
prot in housing real estate and lost interest in speculative housing
construction. Consequently, land prices fell. Rather than creating
incentives for the private market, as would usually be done today,
the social democratic administration of Red Viena bought land and
constructed communal housing themselves – not privileging capital’s
needs, but rather workers’ needs for housing.
Vienna received tax sovereignty by becoming an independent
state in , which helped in the nancing of Red Vienna’s large-
scale housing programme. is made it possible for politicians to
establish luxury taxes, such as the progressive housing construction
tax (Wohnbausteuer). e tax applied to all properties within
the municipal jurisdiction but assessed large and luxurious villas
and private property to be in an exponentially higher bracket
than small working-class housing-units.
24
e tax helped to fund
24 In a way the housing construction tax was indirectly ghting growth by taxing auent
housing exponentially.
the construction of , communal housing units as well as
kindergartens and libraries.
25
On a more economic level, the
construction of these housing blocks increased employment rates
and supported local industries such as the Wienerberger brick
production. roughout its existence, Red Vienna’s housing politics
and policies were fought by the political opposition and nally
violently ended by the right-wing authoritarian “Austro-fascist”
federal government in .
Taxing policies today
An example of a communication strategy around housing, as well
as an example of a tax related to urban development gains, are the
policies undertaken by the city of Basel. Since the s, the Swiss
city has implemented a land value capture tax (Mehrwertabschöpfung),
a city-wide municipal levy that redistributes up to of the prots
(which would be derived from up-zoning or new-zoning from e.g.,
green space to housing zone) from real estate development into
investment in public space and infrastructure. When communicating
the benets of this form of redistribution, city ocials worked on the
renement of their communication strategy. rough this scheme,
a transparent calculation of the expected prots of the property
owner or developer is combined with an aect-loaded discourse on
redistribution, rather than employing merely technical language.
Instead of framing the policy as a public tax of on private
prots, the city is emphasizing in its communication the fact that the
remaining was, in fact, still a gift from the public to landowners.
After all, the prot would be created without any work or
achievement by the private landowner, but only due to the upzoning
made possible by the municipality. A public act, which increases the
development potential for the private piece of land. Such aective
25 Red Vienna’s housing programme formed the basis for present-day Viennese communal
housing stock of 220,000 units, making Vienna’sMunicipal Department 50 one of the
largest public housing authorities, and hence also in a position of responsibility to reduce
the housing sector’s CO emissions. For the relationship between Red Vienna and radical
democracy, see Heindl 2020.
information strategies could be transferred to other tax policies, e.g.,
to introduce new taxes or to raise a CO consumption tax, property
tax, inheritance tax, vacancy tax or energy tax.
Another powerful communication strategy that can facilitate
redistributive taxation is cost transparency. One example is to
announce the actual costs of empty housing units for the public or to
consider future recycling costs of building material into the calculation
of construction costs. Also, municipalities could communicate the
injustice of the gap between low property taxes and high-income tax.
26
is can be revealing, as it highlights an injustice that needs to be
made more controversial, as speculation using housing is taxed much
less than work, e.g., care work that is most relevant to society.
Use and re-distribution of existing space
To use what already exists would possibly be the most eective
degrowth strategy with regard to housing, and it certainly is quite
the opposite of the historically dominant growth-dependent response
to housing problems. In order to redistribute what already exists,
municipalities would need to end the misuse of the housing stock
such as buy-to-let models (housing units which are only purchased as
an investment property and managed by large companies), secondary
residences, commercial AirBnB developments, or empty homes. On
this front, there is a paradigm shift already happening at dierent
scales and places. For example, Tyrol, Austria has put in place a
municipal ordinance restricting secondary residences. Barcelona has
temporarily expropriated ats that banks repossessed and hoarded
following the - Spanish nancial crises and has restricted
short-term private room-rentals such as AirBnB. Vancouver, with
its conspicuously under-used downtown core of empty houses, has
implemented an Empty Homes Tax in , even if it is still fairly
low at three per cent of a home’s assessed value.
26 is was lucidly documented in the exhibition “Boden für alle” at Architekturzentrum
Wien (AzW), 2020/2021.
Decommodication of land within a municipal territory
An important set of policies relates to the politics of urban land
use. Today’s high demand for housing and insucient rent control
makes real estate investments appealing terrains for those with
excess capital. Subsequently, urban land prices have skyrocketed
and aordable land for subsidised housing has become rare. In
Austria, this resulted in a decrease in social or communal housing
run by limited-prot associations
27
while, at the same time, private
market housing construction boomed. In , in order to secure
aordable land for subsidised housing, Vienna’s city government
introduced a remarkable building code amendment, creating
the zoning category “subsidised housing”. is eectively caps
land prices, since the provisions under the amendment limit
land prices for subsidised housing to /m² gross oor area.
rough such zoning, the municipality aims to make two-thirds
of development subsidised housing. e impact of this law became
most evident when landowners called it “quasi-expropriation” of
their future speculated prot. is amendment, which should be
seen as only a rst step, resulted from counter-hegemonic claims
and actions by a dierentiated group of actors. On the one hand,
housing cooperatives criticised the lack of land and, on the other
hand, activists criticised the lack of policies limiting free-market
speculation. Additionally, workshops and public debates on urban
land as a commons enabled land price caps to become a conceivable
idea and thus a practical possibility.
However, this law comes quite late, as a lot of land in Vienna has
already been zoned. In addition, its implementation still has to be
put into eect. A law that is not executed only “tames” capitalism
(see Chapter ). Even though the law puts private property rights
into question, it does not address the initial problem of turning
green land into construction sites, which contradicts agricultural
27 In Austria subsidised housing is subjected to regulations regarding the land price, the
rental price, and also limited-prot cooperations have to reinvest gains in funded housing
projects.
and ecological demands (e.g., good agricultural soil for farming in
Donaufeld, on Vienna’s outskirts).
Generally, if new zoning for housing (or rather for “social housing”
as it should be) is still to be pursued, it should at least be limited-
time zoning and municipalities should be given the right as a priority
buyer. is would make sure that land is not being hoarded and
speculated on. In cases where it is not developed, the land can be –
and should be – taken over by the municipality.
Planning
e main objective of degrowth and social justice strategies should
be to rather abandon new construction, and instead redistribute
and refurbish existing structures and possibly densify built urban
areas. Density is a planning goal, which would support and impact
ecological mobility strategies and resourceful use of infrastructure.
Yet, it has to come along with the planning of high-quality public
and green space. Concurrently, there is a boom of new housing
construction in nearly every city seeing economic growth. Within
this growth-driven housing sector, at least some subsidies are
dedicated to decarbonisation, relating mostly to technological aspects
like low-energy or passive house construction or green facades. Yet,
we know that the most ecological house is the one that is not built.
Refurbishment
Refurbishment of existing housing stock may lead to some
unexpected impacts. Many municipalities and governments are
moving to end the subsidisation of fossil fuel-based heating in the
home, which is already a positive step. However, there is a risk
that this green turn in the housing industry fosters “low-carbon
gentrication” (Bouzarovski et al. ). If there are no remediating
policies in place, it could lead to unaordable rent increases and,
ultimately, evictions. Retrotting must be more tightly linked to
urban justice, rent safety, and rent control.
e “prebound eect”, demonstrates that if energy-ecient
retrotting or aordable energy is made available to households
with limited nancial means, there may in fact be a less signicant
decrease in energy use than expected. Studies showed how
households living in homes that are rated as inecient may use
much less energy than predicted (e.g., Sunikka-Blank et al. ).
In terms of costs and eects, this suggests that there may be a gap
between the performance of energy-saving devices and actual
energy consumption, meaning that technical improvements may
have a limited impact. In order to prevent the “rebound eect” –
where eciency improvements lead to more consumption, e.g.,
construction boom of detached houses “sanctioned” by passive house
certication – measures must be connected to resolutions of general
resourcefulness which include the calculation of grey energy and
building site preparation.
In order to reduce new construction, the existing housing stock
needs to be re-assessed, since the building industry continues to
claim that refurbishing costs are much higher than new construction.
ese economic calculations can be challenged through new and
all-inclusive means of calculating construction costs. Also, the
protection of the existing housing stock must be customised to the
appropriate context: While energy-inecient and oil-consuming
buildings (e.g., from the post-WWII-period) depend on conversion
and modication, historic buildings may require proper legal
protection rather than layers of insulation. If anything is to be taken
down, circular economy and urban mining should be encouraged,
since whatever is taken down should become upcycled for new
construction. Yet, many of the current building techniques are not
made for this. Hence, it would be favourable to add mandatory
disassembly planning to the ling process of any new construction.
In addition, stricter laws would be needed to protect green spaces
and trees as well as to prevent urban sprawl and soil sealing. And, to
return to communication strategies, when it comes to negotiating it
is not enough to merely call for an “end to soil sealing”: degrowth
means de-sealing. Some cities have already taken up some of this
challenge, for example, Dresden’s city council has established a
“soil compensation account” (Bodenausgleichskonto), which involves
requiring de-sealing of a certain area (soil recovery) in compensation
for sealing elsewhere (European Commission ).
Post-growth development
From a planning perspective, the ecological crisis raises the question
of how to conceptualise doing nothing – which is not at all the same
as not doing anything. All actors that shape the city – planners,
citizens, administration, politicians – face the challenge of nding
ways of dening “progress” without the need for new construction.
e good news is that the younger generation of planners and
architects are not keen on serving as tools for growth and capitalist
agendas. Recently, established architecture oce Lacaton Vassal
received the Pritzker Prize, the highest architectural award, for their
approach of carefully doing as little (re)construction as their projects
need and for their exclusive focus on refurbishing. ese are signs of
a change in the general discourse in architecture.
Unexpected alliances
Housing is more than housing and also relates to the quality of
public space. To highlight this, I want to present the case of the
rescue of Vienna’s Danube Canal meadow. It is an interesting
example of a bottom-up movement successfully interrupting the
logic of growth in alliance with a top-down planning process – in
which I played an active part as one of the planners who designed
urban guidelines for the canal in , commissioned by the city of
Vienna.
28
While the guidelines were initially intended to regulate the
aesthetics of new construction, we changed their logic to quite the
opposite: a guide for the denition of areas where nothing should
28 Donaukanal Partitur, in collaboration with my colleague Susan Kraupp, 2014. e process
consisted of around fty meetings with planning and maintenance authorities, users and
politicians.
be constructed. By means of a “non-building plan”, we mapped and
drew – through reversing the logic of a building or zoning plan –
a clear prohibition against building within this important public
waterfront of Vienna. Our non-building plan described explicitly
that the few remaining non-commercialised areas along the water
should not be commercially developed by private investors. is
included the Donaukanalwiese, the last open-access horizontal piece
of river channel bank in central Vienna. Yet, it was only after a group
of activists named Donaucanale für alle! (“Danube Canal For All!”)
organised sit-ins and protests that plans for large-scale gastronomic
development on this remaining area were rejected. It is interesting,
especially when considered in relation to the strategic perspective of
the chapter as a whole, that government-commissioned guidelines
only gained momentum when the activists used them to support
their demands (Heindl ).
Popular agency
Commoning and decapitalising
e Syndicate of Tenements (Mietshäusersyndikat) in Germany and
its younger sister organisation in Austria, HabiTAT, work toward
self-organised aordable living (and working) by creating a network
of non-prot and self-managed houses, mostly by refurbishing
houses. Specically, member associations buy land and buildings
from the speculative market and transform them into commons.
eir collective structure guarantees the permanent commitment
of its sub-associations to not proting from the living and working
space. Such decapitalizing “nowtopias” represent a goal and strategy
at the same time. However, commoning needs resources and
opportunities to counter exclusiveness and inaccessibility, which such
projects could easily succumb to.
Some municipal governments support cooperative building
initiatives (Baugruppen) with subsidised land, for which the
initiatives are (rightly so) required to give some social benets
back to society. More often, however, such commoning projects
operate without top-down support. Nevertheless, these projects
are pioneers in certain social and ecological aspects, as they are
experimenting with collective use of kitchens, living rooms,
amenities, and so on. ey are often engaged in practices such as
sharing economy, solidarity economy as well as energy autonomy. In
Vienna, supporting platforms such as the Initiative for Community
Building and Living (Initiative für gemeinschaftliches Bauen und
Wohnen) are important actors as they actively work on connecting
bottom-up actors with the city administration in charge of ocial
land-use policies. Additionally, they oer a platform for pressuring
municipalities to continue to reserve land for collective housing.
Commoning is a precarious process that requires a lot of eort and
energy – this is where all too often the participating groups consist
of actors who have sucient time resources. Hence, it is important
to support the housing movement in its commoning projects and
strengthen them by inserting radical democratic values and ways
of organising to improve the accessibility and openness of their
commoning projects. In addition, it would of course be very valuable
if ways could be found for how such commoning processes could
contribute their methods, knowledge, and experience to political and
planning processes. In this way, lessons from small group experiments
could be scaled up to the larger and more anonymous scale of social
or public housing. is includes lessons for intersectional justice in
housing, for example, certain small-scale experiments have developed
methods for those who might not have the capacity to participate
fully in collective processes to still benet from self-governed housing
models – these could be adapted to facilitate community-controlled
social housing as well. Strategic alliances between degrowth actors
with new housing cooperatives (for example WoGen – Wohnprojekte
Genossenschaft, a cooperative for building initiatives in Vienna), and
non-prot community land trusts – solidarity-based corporations
which hold land and steer land use without prot-orientation (e.g.,
Deutsche Stiftung Trias) are vital to building bridges between individual,
small-scale eorts for alternative housing and society as a whole.
Learning from past failures and successful alliances
A successful degrowth movement will, however, also rely on research
and on lessons from the failures and successes of past projects.
Degrowth-oriented projects are often dependent on a substantial
mass of supporters and expertise and must endure for a long time to
develop fully. Not all projects have the necessary perseverance. Yet,
there are precedents which demonstrate how urban neighbourhoods
would have developed in a very dierent way had there not been
activist momentum by civil society: from the historic success of
the protection of the Viennese Spittelberg area (including the
squatted Amerlinghaus, which today remains a largely a non-
prot community space), to the protest Doncaucanale für alle! (see
above). Fridays for Future activists, mobility experts, researchers and
oppositional politicians have been collectively protesting against the
Lobautunnel, the construction of a highway tunnel under a natural
resort in Vienna, as well as against further highway construction
in Northern Vienna. is interdisciplinary and intergenerational
alliance of protesters is demanding, amongst other things, a
substantial upgrading of public mobility infrastructure in this area.
Protesting and squatting
Last but not least I will discuss how civil disobedience in the form
of protests and squatting can help steer society toward degrowth in
housing. One way of moving forward is to prevent the growth of
non-social housing – for example when protest movements block
neoliberal developments which would not include a single social
housing unit. Beyond this, movements are also working to undo
the neoliberal sell-o of social housing, which Deutsche Wohnen
& Co enteignen in Berlin has demonstrated powerfully (see case,
this chapter). Finally, tenant protest movements in Barcelona are an
example of the power of protests, which eventually resulted in the
victory of a municipalist, radical-democratic party of former activist
and current mayor Ada Colau. Colau introduced redistributive
policies such as the temporary expropriation of vacant ats owned by
banks. We must not forget that Barcelona also has a large squatting
scene, which has had a large role in the housing movement.
Squatting poses the property question in its most direct way and
positions it at the centre of a radical paradigm and system change.
By doing so, it smashes the system’s logic as much as it acts as a
useful survey of empty houses. Squatters scout for vacancies that
could be used by those who urgently need housing. Squatting can
also help save houses from demolition – not only because it exposes
these buildings to the public’s attention, but also through what has
been called “convivial conservation” (Büscher et al. ), meaning:
houses need people for their maintenance. How squatting becomes
a useful part of the system can be seen in how certain squatted
houses have developed into cultural centres in the urban fabric (in
Vienna e.g., the music venue Arena). Squatted houses often have
not only been witnesses to civil engagement but – when successfully
turned into self-organised, non-prot housing – have also become
eco-retrotted and experimental zones for co-living and solidarity
economy.
Conclusion
Degrowth strategies are not about pursuing purity, but rather
embody a “use what you can” ethic. In other words – and relating
directly to radical democracy – it is about a counter-hegemonic
strategy. Such a counter-hegemonic strategy is especially necessary
when, compared to the present context in which TINA is the norm,
the reformist measures of the past look like the most daring future
utopias. When travelling the path to shift the paradigm from growth
to degrowth, it is important not to play the ecological question
against the social question (see also Chapter ). It also means taking
the smallest steps wherever we can: we can simultaneously develop
the infrastructure and conditions needed for change, form alliances
with a spirit of critical pragmatism, or advocate non-reformist
reforms. e latter are especially important as they can “set in
motion a trajectory of change in which more radical reforms become
practicable over time” (Fraser and Honneth ). Rosa Luxemburg
oers a productive perspective on reforms: these can allow for
important (next) steps and small victories – even within capitalism.
But a comprehensive kind of change (for Luxemburg: the revolution)
must not be left out of sight (Luxemburg ). Hence, a degrowth
perspective on housing should connect projects, long-term visions
and small steps through a comprehensive framework of radical
democracy and housing beyond capitalism.
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A case in the eld of urban housing: Deutsche
Wohnen & Co. Enteignen – Berlin’s strategy for a
tenants’ commons
By Ian Clotworthy and Ania Spatzier
Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen (DWE, „Expropriate
29
Deutsche Wohnen & Co.“ in English) is a campaign in Berlin,
whose strategy is discussed in this section as a social-ecological
transformation of urban housing. e campaign was launched in
April and at the time of writing successfully organised for its
demands to be put to a citywide referendum on September .
is is possible due to the existing direct democracy mechanisms
which exist in the federal state of Berlin. Voters supported the
referendum with . valid votes in favour of the campaign’s
proposal (Berlin, Landeswahlleiterin für Berlin a).
Deutsche Wohnen is a stock market-listed housing corporation
that has come to own , ats in Berlin (Trautvetter ). is
makes it Berlin’s single largest landlord. e campaign aims to take
back into public ownership the entire stock of housing that belongs
to this company and a number of similar corporations (referenced
by “& Co. “ in the campaign name) that own more than ,
ats each. e referendum campaign included about , ats,
thereby doubling the public housing stock. DWE proposes to
place the ats in the ownership of an Anstalt des öentlichen Rechts
(public-law institution in English, see Figure ) which would include
tenants, sta and the public in administering the housing, enabling
a radical expansion of democracy (DWE , ). Such tenants’
commons would mark a ruptural break from housing dominated by
private speculators. With rents no longer servicing the demands of
the nancial markets, the result would be a permanent decrease in
29 In this case, expropriation is meant not as a seizure of property without compensation at
all, but to indicate that the campaign demands compensation considerably below market
value, as provided by the German Basic Law. us, Berlin would not reward speculation
by providing further capital to these companies.
rents across the city (DWE c). e campaign has gained support
stretching well beyond the tenant activist milieu, including major
trade unions Verdi, GEW and IG Metall (DWE b).
Background
rough a series of privatisations, Berlin’s stock of , ats in
the s (Sontheimer ) has been whittled down to ,,
so that the majority of housing is now in private hands (),
with about , homes held by large companies (Trautvetter
). Analyses of annual reports reveal that tenants pay large
dividends to shareholders of companies like Deutsche Wohnen,
Vonovia and Akelius. Every year, each tenant of Deutsche Wohnen
pays shareholders dividends to the order of , (Meister )
– for Vonovia and Akelius, this comes to , and even ,,
respectively (Kühn ; Akelius Residential Property AB ).
Shareholders are largely investment management companies such as
BlackRock (Trautvetter ).
Berlin has a large tenant population – some of residents rent
(Trautvetter ). In the average Berlin tenant paid . of
their net income on rent (ImmoScout ), close to the at
which housing costs are considered to be a major nancial burden
(Hans-Böckler-Stiftung ). Between and , rents for
new contracts in Berlin increased by (Germany, Deutscher
Bundestag ). is has led to widespread displacement of
working-class residents, non-commercial cultural spaces, and small
businesses, to make way for more auent residents and upmarket
businesses (Kotti & Co. ).
Since , the Berlin state government has attempted to gain
more control over the market by gradually buying back , ats,
but it has not been enough to slow the rise in rents (Lindenberg
). Finally, the government introduced the Mietendeckel (rent
cap), a law to tame the market, freezing rents for ve years to
their level, and even, for about of ats, reducing rents
(Kostrzynski et al. ). However, this period of relief came to a
sudden end in April , when the German federal constitutional
court struck down the law on the grounds that Berlin, as a state,
does not have the legal competence to pass such a law (Germany,
Bundesverfassungsgericht ).
Movement formation and development of the proposal
e last decade has seen a rising tide of tenant activism in Berlin.
e city has many long-time residents who have experienced the
Mietpreisbindung (long-term rent control) of West Berlin, the mass
provision of housing in East Berlin, and the continuous presence of
the housing occupation (squatting) scene (Horogge ). Beyond
the tenants’ associations which focus on providing legal aid, local
initiatives arose in order to network tenants and ght collectively
against the creeping phenomenon of displacement of individuals out
of the neighbourhoods where they had long lived (Strobel ).
e epicentre of these initiatives is in the heart of the Kreuzberg
district: Kottbusser Tor. Here stand many of the social apartment
blocks that were sold to Deutsche Wohnen. e company has been
identied as a key actor in the displacement of members of this
substantially Turkish migrant community, in favour of new rental
contracts with higher-paying tenants (Kotti & Co. ; Gürgen
).
From this community in arose the initiative Kotti & Co.,
which has become a driving force of the Berlin tenants’ movement.
From the beginning, it argued that the privatisation of housing
at Kottbusser Tor was a mistake and demanded its democratic
recommunalisation (Kotti & Co. ). In the following years,
more initiatives such as Mieter*inneninitiative Bündnis Otto-Suhr-
Siedlung (Tenant Initiative Otto-Suhr-Estate), Mieter*innenprotest
Deutsche Wohnen (Tenant Protest Deutsche Wohnen) and the
Akelius-Mieter*innenvernetzung (Akelius Tenant Network) were
formed, joining the demand for democratic recommunalisation
(Akelius-Mieter*innenvernetzung ). Key actors in this, besides
the tenants themselves, included organisers from the Interventionist
Left (IL), who also went on to play critical roles in DWE (Strobel
).
In , while SPD politicians were expressing their regret at
selling o social housing, Kotti & Co. began to develop strategies of
how exactly to achieve the demand of socialisation on a large scale
in Berlin (Villinger ; Kotti & Co. ). During their research,
they noticed the potential of Articles and of the Grundgesetz,
Germany’s constitution: the articles prescribe that private property
rights are protected, but prioritised below the public interest.
30
It
provides for compensation well below the market value.
31
In April
, following discussions with legal experts, these initiatives
decided to step up the pressure on policymakers by collaborating
to launch a citywide campaign for recommunalisation: Deutsche
Wohnen & Co. Enteignen (Taheri ).
e idea of expropriation achieved such resonance with
the population that the Berlin government implemented the
Mietendeckel (rent cap) – a policy intended to absorb the momentum
behind DWE (Kunkel ; Kusiak ) by immediately arresting
the rise in rent prices. After the overturning of the Mietendeckel in
April , the government made a renewed attempt to placate the
movement, presenting a proposal to buy back , ats from
Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen as part of the two companies’
merger process (Iser ).
Strategy
In their brochure Vergesellschaftung und Gemeinwirtschaft
(Socialisation and the Social Economy), DWE lay out a Vienna-
inspired vision of transforming housing and related sectors to a point
where prot would play no role at all. Considered at a total system
30 Article 14, Paragraph 2: “Property entails obligations. Its use shall serve the public good.”
Article 15: “Land, resources, and means of production may for the purpose of socialisation
be transferred to public ownership” (abbreviated)
31 Article 14, Paragraph 3, Sentence 3: “Such compensation shall be determined by
establishing an equitable balance between the public interest and the interests of those
aected”
level, this would represent an interstitial strategy, in which expansion
of an alternative model of democratic control of housing also spurs
the expansion of public housing companies and the publicly-owned
renewable energy sector. is is described as already happening
with the public housing companies installing solar panels on roofs,
generating low-cost electricity for the apartment blocks they own
(DWE ,).
Figure 12.1.: DWE’s proposal to democratically administer expropriated housing.
e campaign decided to use a legal instrument of direct democracy
that specically Berlin provides: a Volksbegehren (popular petition),
whereby initiatives can put forth a proposal and collect enough
signatures to oblige the government to hold a referendum on
it. DWE decided that their Volksbegehren would be to call upon
the legislature to write a law fullling certain conditions laid out
in a document called the Beschlusstext (resolution text, Berlin,
Landeswahlleiterin für Berlin a). ey chose to do this rather
than write a law and propose it because other initiatives had failed
due to technical errors in proposed laws (Metzger et al. ). e
signatures must be provided on a particular paper form along with
the signer’s address and date of birth so that the election oce can
verify them as a resident. Securing the referendum involves two
windows of time, or phases, for collecting signatures. e rst
phase required collecting , signatures; , were collected
between April and September . en the proposal spent a year
in an ocial legal examination before being declared valid. During
this time, the government attempted to have DWE agree to water
down the wording of the Beschlusstext from a demand to pass a law
to socialise housing to merely “taking measures” towards it (Joswig
). e campaign did not submit to this co-optation attempt – a
common problem faced by symbiotic strategies (see Chapter ).
Since the parties of the governing coalition could not agree on
passing a socialisation law, the campaign initiated the second phase.
is required gathering the signatures of of eligible voters in
Berlin, about , people, with the aim of forcing a referendum
on the issue. e way this was accomplished was by organising
Kiezteams (neighbourhood teams) in every district of the city, who
could collect signatures in public places. Some of these emerged
from the DW tenant initiatives discussed above. e barriers to entry
were made low: every Kiezteam and campaign working group, as well
as the whole campaign, hosted regular online meetings, and a mobile
app was created in which anyone could view and join upcoming
public collection drives. Besides Kiezteams, there are a number of
thematic working groups. All working groups elect representatives
to a coordination circle of twenty people that keeps the campaign
together and deals with nancial matters. Major decisions are made
democratically at a general campaign meeting every two weeks.
e second collection phase took place between February
and July (DWE, a), by which time the campaign
submitted , signatures to the election oce. is was a record
– despite the long COVID- lockdown, DWE had collected more
signatures than any other such initiative in Berlin. e referendum
was quickly planned to take place for September (Berlin,
Landeswahlleiterin für Berlin b), alongside the Berlin state and
federal elections. About , activists were bound into campaign
structures and collected signatures regularly.
is strong infrastructure paved the way to a decisive victory
for the campaign in the referendum. On September ,
the voters of Berlin supported the motion of the referendum by
., parallel to electing a new Berlin state government (Berlin,
Landeswahlleiterin für Berlin c). e referendum was not legally
binding but can be considered politically binding. e campaign has
therefore moved into a mode of mobilising political pressure to make
the socialisation of housing a reality.
Conclusion
e scale and ambition of this project to rapidly decommodify and
manage housing democratically suggests a ruptural break with the
status quo of increasing nancialisation of the housing sector, similar
to the worker takeovers of industries in Argentina (see Chapter ).
Wright suggests that this use of “ordinary democratic processes of the
state” can even be a strategy to pursue ruptural outcomes (Wright
, ). In this case, the means used are very much symbiotic:
passing a law changing the existing institutional forms from private
to public and deepening social empowerment by building democracy
into the new institution that manages the housing stock (see Figure
). Beyond Berlin, the development could have a chilling eect on
real estate speculation and demonstrates new possibilities for tenant
movements globally (Kusiak ).
DWE does not explicitly identify as a degrowth campaign, but
it does identify with the degrowth goal of linking ecological limits
with approaches to radical democracy (DWE , ). Its strategy
to decouple housing from prot aims to tackle the problem that
Berlin tenants face at its root: the fact that housing as an investment
commodity causes upward pressure on rents (Taheri ). Stopping
this dynamic even in just one economic sector goes beyond harm
reduction, toward transcending structures, possibly triggering further
degrowth transformations. DWE has developed an alternative vision
to the dominant “build, build, build” narrative, which suggests
that all of Berlin’s housing problems would be solved by simply
building more private housing (McGath ). is vision not only
addresses the distribution of existing housing but would also make
it possible to build new housing that most Berliners could aord. If
implemented, this vision would realise housing as a right, always to
be prioritised over the interests of unelected capital. As activist Ralf
Horogge says (Peter , n.p.):
“Our campaign’s success would be a real step towards
democratic deglobalisation; that capital is taken back from the
nancial markets and fed into the local economy, where it serves
the need for housing. Making more money out of money is not
a basic need, but a perversion that benets no one. Our success
would save Berlin from becoming a city of capital and would
be a signal that a cosmopolitan city can also be thought of as a
regional public economy.”
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Villinger, Christoph. . „Gastbeitrag Mietenbündnis: Wagt die Enteignung!“ Die
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Wright, Erik Olin. . Envisioning Real Utopias. London, New York: Verso.
Chapter : Digital technologies
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of digital technologies and
the cases of Low-Tech Magazine and Decidim
By Nicolas Guenot and Andrea Vetter
e relentless development of technology is not just a key trait of
modernity, but also an essential driving force of the industrial society
against which the degrowth movement stands. Consequently, one
could expect to nd clearly formulated analyses and visions about
technology in the degrowth literature. But, surprisingly, there is little
work specically addressing technology (Kerschner et al. ) and
strategic indeterminism (Herbert et al. ) on this question plagues
a community that has not yet been able to properly formulate a
desirable vision and related strategies – be they based on the radical
critique of classic authors (Ellul ) or on the hopes some have put
in digital commons and peer-to-peer production (Gorz ).
e rejection of gigantic technical infrastructures such as airports
or pipelines and the use of bicycles as a symbol for a more human
way of life are widespread in the degrowth movement. Yet beyond
calls to limit the spread of technical devices (Latouche ), the
dominant technological imaginary is left mostly untouched and very
few manage to envision the kind of technology a world after growth
would need or discuss how our current relationship with technology
could be transformed. is is striking because technology, as the
set of processes of producing and applying instrumental knowledge
to improve the eciency of material human action, involves and
inuences all of society and its institutions, so neither technology
nor society can be transformed independently from the other.
erefore, a transformation strategy for technology must explain
both how to reshape it and how to change its role within society.
In this chapter, we will describe the degrowth movement’s
approach to the topic and then outline various strategies to
transform technology. ere are essentially two orientations: working
with existing technology and controlling or repurposing it to
progress towards a degrowth society, or struggling against the very
imaginary underpinning the development of industrial technology.
e former focuses on the role of technology in society, the latter
on reshaping it. us, any strategy will have to combine both
orientations to be successful.
Our analysis relies on Erik Olin Wright’s typology of symbiotic,
interstitial and ruptural transformations (Wright ) presented in
Chapter , but also on a set of criteria used to evaluate how strategies
address various aspects of the politics of technology. Noticeably,
the strategies considered mostly involve actors from outside the
degrowth movement who pursue dierent agendas – which reects
the weakness of the degrowth narrative in the eld of technology. In
order to convey a sense of the challenges ahead, we will end with a
more detailed survey of two projects demonstrating the strengths and
weaknesses of a particularly interesting strategy in the eld of digital
technology and suggest some leads for a sorely needed debate on
desirable technological futures and the means to achieve them.
e degrowth movement between primitivism and techno-
utopianism
Degrowth can be seen as a call to critically reassess the idea of
progress as it was forged in the ideological framework of industrial
societies. Too often, this is mocked as an attempt to “take us back to
the dark ages”, in a striking expression of the pervasive fear of losing
a way of life dened by devices such as cars or televisions. is fear
is rooted in the narrative that presents the continuous development
of productive forces through science and technology as the essential
condition of human wellbeing (Sahlins ). Support for this “myth
of progress” is not limited to the heralds of capitalist production –
it is also part of a certain Marxist teleology of human development,
despite the relation between technology and alienation pointed out
by Marx himself (Wendling ). Technology thus plays a central
role in the conict between those seeking to downscale industrial
production and those advocating the expansion of productive forces
beyond capitalism (Bastani ). But which criteria should be
considered in this debate? Here, we will foreground two: the relation
of technology to resources and energy use, and its impact on society.
e general attitude of the degrowth movement towards
technology hinges on the environmental question: what level of
consumption of energy and natural resources is possible within
planetary boundaries? e technologies underlying the expansion of
capitalism have always been based on fossil fuels (Malm ) and
scarce resources. Can these be replaced, and if so, how? No future
can be imagined without rst answering these questions. ere
is a widespread tendency to believe that the energy eciency of
technical devices can steadily increase, even though it is undermined
by rebound eects (Herring and Roy ). But few answers are
available and divergent views on the future of technology often
boil down to a question of faith, as illustrated by the dominant
cornucopian imaginary of always expandable natural boundaries
(Jochum ). In our analysis, we will operate under the
assumption that there will not be signicantly more energy available
in the future than today, due to fossil fuels being phased out and
physical limits on renewable energy.
In the face of ecological uncertainties, another criterion is
often used to assess the role of technology: its impact on human
relations and the shaping of societies. Again, divergent views
coexist in the degrowth movement. Whereas the gure of Skynet,
an articial superintelligence wiping out humankind in the movie
e Terminator, echoes the ambivalent relation of humans with
their own creations (Anders ), information technology is the
cornerstone of many post-capitalist visions of society (Mason )
with which many in the degrowth movement sympathise. On a
strategic level, it seems dicult to make a new imaginary appealing
if it is widely deemed too technophobic, and the global blending
of cultures already achieved by modern means of communication
(Appadurai ) should not be overlooked and cannot be rolled
back. Moreover, the socio-political implications of introducing new
technology cannot be fully determined in advance (Winner ).
is all makes transforming and directing technology towards
degrowth rather dicult.
e sheer amount of distinct technological elds forces us to
focus our attention, and here we will mostly choose examples
from one specic form of technology – digital technology, which
encompasses all processes collecting and manipulating information
using electronic devices. ere would be much to say about bio-
and nanotechnology, or space exploration, but nothing within
current discourses appears as likely to reshape society and help to
overcome the climate crisis as digital technology. And indeed, it is
increasingly transforming democracy, work, and our use of resources.
So what potential lies in this process? Digital technology is the
foremost strategic eld of our times, because it is at the heart of the
green growth narrative, promising the dawn of a dematerialised and
cognitive capitalism (McAfee ). It has been mobilised to support
the ideological function of technological discourse, reframing
industrial economic policies as paths towards sustainability, using for
example the vocabulary of smart cities (European Commission ).
Questioning the transformative potential of digital technology
should thus be a priority for the degrowth movement.
However, from the radical democratic aspirations of the internet
culture of the s to the data monopolies of giant digital platforms
(Srnicek ), and from staggering energy consumption to the
promise of a dematerialised economy (Hickel and Kallis ),
the gap between discourse and reality makes it dicult to dene
strategic goals. More than any other artefact, computers can shape
very dierent technological imaginaries. But a path between fear
and frenzy must be found: a radically primitivist narrative ignores
too many realities, while techno-utopias mostly ignore natural
boundaries and run counter to degrowth principles by demanding
ever more technology to balance the unpredictable eects of
technology itself. As we will see in our analysis of strategies for
transforming technology, navigating the contradictions of possible
(digital) futures is an ongoing challenge.
e diculty of shaping technology from a degrowth perspective
While degrowth as a slogan has played an important part in
questioning various economic orthodoxies and suggesting new
paths in the face of social and environmental disasters, in the eld
of technology it often appears limited to a critique of planned
obsolescence and totalitarian tendencies to surveil or control our
lives. e primary cause for the prevalent strategic indeterminism
– the lack of a clear goal or of the means to achieve it – ironically
seems to be deterministic views on modern technology, tending to
describe it as either entirely dispensable or absolutely necessary
(Eversberg and Schmelzer ). Both options are obviously unt
to support a reasonable strategy, the challenge being to envision
the kind of technology that can be deemed necessary in a degrowth
society.
How can the development of technology be reappropriated by
the many? Inventing convivial tools means being able to assess their
impact on the natural and human world (Vetter ). Our analysis
distinguishes between four interlocking dimensions. Ecological
sustainability is a measure relating the quantity of natural resources
used in producing and deploying technology to their regeneration
rate. Social justice addresses the ties of technical systems to privileges
and power relations. Self-determination describes the individual and
collective degree of control over the course of our own lives. Finally,
interdependency denes the structure of necessary interactions among
humans through and with the artefacts they create. It is not easy
to balance these dimensions, and transformation strategies usually
prioritise some over others, depending on their goals and ideological
contexts. e four following strategies take these dierent aspects of
technology into account in very dierent ways.
Green New Deals: industrial sustainability through eciency
A rst strategy is the symbiotic one, often labelled as the Green
New Deal. Something akin to it is currently advocated for by
many states and environmental organisations attempting to reach
a transformative threshold through small steps, beyond which an
industrial society would become sustainable (European Commission
). It focuses mostly on ecological sustainability and often focuses
on demanding legislation against planned obsolescence – as the Right
to Repair campaign does in the European Union – or improving
recycling or upcycling rates and making cities smart. Crucially,
energy and resource eciency must steadily increase. Pressure on the
industry is ensured through economic means, increasing prices for
natural resources through taxes. e threshold is crossed when all
energy is renewably produced, goods are durable and all materials
cyclically reused without losing their integrity or quality. is
strategy applies to technology in general, but the focus on ecological
eciency is usually associated with the transition to a digital post-
industrial economy striving for qualitative development.
However, even digital technology is not immaterial but
requires massive infrastructure and the industrial production of
countless devices (Bratton ). Further developing our technical
infrastructure or even just maintaining current technological
standards in the Global North under this strategy illustrates the lock-
in of technological thinking: all of it relies on eciency gains and
renewable energy production which themselves require sustaining a
complex industry, while full recycling amounts to a technical miracle
we cannot reliably hope for (Bihouix ).
is eciency-oriented strategy is in practice hegemonic when it
comes to sustainable technology. Interestingly, it is at the heart of
the green growth narrative but also seems to appeal to those who see
degrowth as a welcome attempt to decrease the ecological footprint
of capitalism. In a sense, it makes degrowth attractive to those not
ready to confront their own technological imaginary by channelling
demands for transformation towards an optimistic agenda tailored
for capitalist modernity and its impressive track record in increasing
eciency. But despite the importance of recycling and parsimonious
use of resources, there is probably no path towards degrowth
following this strategy without a dramatic change in production
and consumption patterns to avoid rebound eects, because all
existing technologies consume non-renewable resources. Indeed,
technological change without a deeper transformation, which at least
accounts for social justice, can only crash into the social and physical
limits to growth.
Accelerationism: repurposing technology for the common good
So as we have seen a new level of eciency reached by a full-edged
digital infrastructure is still very likely bound to fail due to the
irrational productive compulsion of capitalism. So a new question
arises: Could technological progress solve our problems under
another mode of production? Addressing social justice dramatically
shifts previous assumptions about the kind of production that
needs to be made sustainable. Could the transformation of
technology just hinge on economic democracy? is is argued by
left-wing accelerationists (Srnicek and Williams ). eir idea
of repurposing technology to serve the common good rather than
prot interests leads to a very ambitious symbiotic strategy aimed
primarily at social justice and economic democracy. Beyond full
automation to reduce working hours and a universal basic income, a
characteristic demand would be for workers to take control of giant
digital corporations currently organising the logistics of capital and
of platforms running global communications. Such a strategy has
an immense potential to become hegemonic if it can be harnessed
by a political party drawing power from the ever-growing class of
precarious workers (Standing ).
Obviously, this strategy focuses on redening the function of
technology within society rather than reshaping technology itself.
One could hope that, if form follows function, this would lead
to a transformation of technology – and indeed, accelerationists
argue for a combinatory approach to repurposing existing pieces
of technology. However, the high-tech character of the envisioned
future is likely to induce a hierarchical division of labour and is
thus dicult to reconcile with a brand of grassroots democracy
widely supported in the degrowth movement and rejected by
accelerationists as naive folk politics. e central role of expertise and
eciency in a technological society thus warrants a critical approach
to the accelerationist strategy within the degrowth movement.
e question of the ecological feasibility of this project is even
more controversial and has just started being debated – with the
promises of digital technology at the centre of the discussion.
Accelerationism does not only provide a vision of high-tech and
mostly digital commons liberating everyone from the drudgery of
work but also promises sustainability through limitless renewable
energy production. Even reformulated to avoid disregarding
care work and physical realities, both aspects should be critically
discussed. But reducing working hours and clean energy production
are indeed important topics. So is there a middle ground between
degrowth and the reappropriation of high-tech infrastructures? e
essential contradiction might lie deeper, in an unabashed promotion
of technological progress that should be carefully assessed. First,
the development of modern technology should be replaced in
the history of colonialism (Arnold ) and its often-disastrous
impact on the Global South should be acknowledged (Fritz and
Hilbig ). Second, the concept of progress played a central role
in the victory of historical capitalism over its socialist alternatives
(Wallerstein ) and still acts as an ideological safeguard against
any attempt to overcome the industrial mode of production. e
question of whether digital technology could be the cornerstone of a
new socialism (Morozov ) beyond growth leads to a productive
controversy, and yet it is clear that accelerating towards degrowth
would require rethinking our relationship with technical artefacts.
e two strategies above – Green New Deals and accelerationism
– suggest transformations on the basis of existing technologies and
therefore do not address the dimensions of self-determination and
interdependency. e two following strategies focus on overcoming
high-tech imaginaries and thus introduce a vision of alternative
technologies taking these aspects into account.
Luddism: controlling and downgrading technology
e pervasiveness of the idea of progress in the development of
historical capitalism foregrounds high-tech imaginaries and leads
to symbiotic strategic approaches, where the industrial state is key.
is can be the case even when striving to overcome capitalism, as
the Soviet Union did. e paradigmatic ruptural strategy concerning
technology, the opposite of “Soviet power plus electrication”,
emerged in an organised form at the very beginning of the industrial
revolution in Great Britain. e struggle of the Luddites (Sale
) against the introduction of machines in manufactures and
their own degradation illustrates the strained relation of workers to
technology and the still-ongoing production of the working class
through industrial discipline. e smashing of machines is a direct
action strategy to reclaim self-determination and social justice by
workers and simple citizens lacking democratic control over new
technologies, and, in time, sabotage spread from the workplace to
modern infrastructures such as digital communication networks
(Çapulcu Redaktionskollektiv ).
ere is a distinctive degrowth touch to the Luddite strategy of
smashing the technological order, and workers burning down their
factories to claim their “right to be lazy” (Paul Lafargue) would
be a most apt romanticisation of a degrowth revolution. But the
underlying theory of change is fuzzy, with answers pending for a
few questions. What is lost when a given technology is destroyed or
rejected? How far should technological development be reverted?
Although turning back the clock to before the industrial revolution
would indeed be a safe path to avoid a climate catastrophe, the social
and human price might be too high, and even the most controversial
technological developments seem dicult to revert.
So what could be viable strategies for a Luddite approach to
technology? Winning over relevant sections of society to such a
radical agenda implies focusing on widely rejected technologies:
any device or software making work feel like slavery or serving mass
surveillance could and should be targeted. And if the historical
Luddites failed on a practical level, they left their mark in the
form of a powerful counter-imaginary undermining the myth of
technological progress and fuelling neo-Luddite attitudes (Mueller
). e key to successful strategies in line with a Luddite
vision of technologies is to insist on radical democratic control
and to show that it is more often industrial modernity than its
rejection that leads to reactionary politics (Herf ). In an age
of permanent climate crisis and digital precarity, ever more people
can be convinced that new technologies are not always benecial to
humankind.
Given the centrality of technology in industrial societies, a
number of variations on the Luddite theme could be considered as
ruptural strategies as well. e individual refusal of technological
innovations can hardly account for a systemic strategy, but a
collective critical approach as a form of “methodological Luddism”
could – that means, not literally destroying things, but sceptically
evaluating promises of technology and rationally limiting the
power of technologies (Winner ). Simple demands such as
a moratorium on new technologies (Latouche ) can have
massive political implications and represent real steps towards
making technologies compatible with degrowth. Indeed, continued
growth often relies on coercing ever more regions of the world into
the world economy through technology. Can there be an eective
defence of non-industrial livelihoods? Luddite strategies oer a
narrative that can be useful for some extractivist struggles and
post-development approaches in the Global South and helps with
escaping historical determinism (Fisher ).
Open-source low-tech: growing appropriate technology from below
One of the most remarkable legacies of the Luddite threat to
industrial societies is the space it opened for interstitial strategies
within the eld of technology. Disillusionment with and sometimes
unfaltering opposition to existing technologies led to calls for an
alternative approach (Illich ) breaking with oppressive technical
structures (Mumford ). e idea of building technology outside
of the industrial mode of production has spread widely – sometimes
as a subculture under the slogan “do it yourself” but also out of
necessity for the economically disenfranchised. To a certain extent,
even large futuristic projects such as the Cybersin system in Chile
had to resort to outdated technology when unable to access state-of-
the-art equipment (Medina ).
Digital technology is at the forefront of this appropriation
movement working with tinkering, hacking and bricolage to gain
control over technological systems, but also illustrates its ambiguities.
e relative freedom of research at institutions where early software
was collaboratively developed, the introduction of personal
computers and above all the internet gave rise to a particularly active
community in which software was built for users, by users (Himanen
) – a group restricted at rst to computer scientists, then wealthy
enthusiasts and, by the end of the century, the global middle classes.
e Free Software movement and its best-known achievement, the
GNU/Linux operating system, takes a political stance on digital
technology and directly addresses issues of social justice and self-
determination (Stallman ). However, the transformations within
capitalism driven by emerging platform corporations (Srnicek )
have deeply impacted hacker culture, and call for a critical evaluation
of such a digital appropriation strategy. Also, technologies like
blockchain and cryptocurrencies, at least to some degree addressing
issues of self-determination, fail regarding their ecological impact,
being very data- and therefore resource-intensive.
While the digital economy has indeed started restructuring labour
relations, it is now clear that the collaborative and commons-oriented
approach of the hacker community is not immune to capitalist
co-optation (Terranova ). As opposed to the concept of free
software, which prevents for-prot uses, the more pragmatic vision
of open-source software oers technology companies the opportunity
to reincorporate the creations of Internet culture. Another benet
of collaborative software development concerns sustainability and
planned obsolescence: freed from prot constraints, hardware can
be used much longer because updates can still be produced. But few
are free to choose the technology they use, and the imperatives of
progress undermine this practice of sustainability.
Beyond digital technology, the high-tech paradigm of
implementing the latest scientic developments in complex
production processes is omnipresent in industrial societies.
is manifestation of the never-ending growth principle tends
to disregard older or other forms of knowledge and divergent
perspectives on the place of technology in our daily lives. e
low-tech approach (De Decker ) delivers a strong critique
of the high-tech imaginary and the problems it induces when
applied indiscriminately to any situation, but also a positive vision
of ingenious applications of simple but adequate technology to
very concrete problems. With a pragmatic attitude, the low-tech
movement oers a thorough reection on the myths of growth and
progress and their consequences for the human and natural world.
ese observations lead us to consider an open-source low-tech
interstitial strategy, which would consist of contextualising technical
needs within social and environmental constraints (Bihouix ),
democratically creating appropriate technologies, and spreading
them from below. It would focus on the community of its users and
developers, in much the same way as the free software movement
did, but seek to lower the requirements to use and co-develop
technologies rather than competing with high-tech developments.
e exibility of the low-tech concept is of strategic importance:
devices that were once high-tech can sometimes be repurposed, so
that an adaptive response to the crisis of industrial societies can be
developed by reusing existing components. For many digital devices
already produced, such as certain standardised chips, software
updates allow for an extended lifetime, while recycling is impossible.
From this perspective, much can also be learned from non-industrial
or low-budget technologies that can be found in many places, in
particular in the Global South (Pansera et al ).
is approach is inherently oriented towards ecological
sustainability and social justice because it strives to fairly distribute
access to technology within natural boundaries. Its very modus
operandi is self-determination, with an emphasis on individual
and collective autonomy in the establishment of technopolitical
institutions (Castoriadis ). But, above all, it acknowledges
the complex system of interdependence induced by technical
infrastructures and avoids pursuing the illusion of an individual
made absolutely free and all-powerful by high-tech enhancements of
its natural abilities. Rather, a low-tech tool is meant to enable fair
collaboration between all those using it or aected by it. However,
there is a problem with this strategy: if it questions the progress
narrative, how can it become hegemonic?
e emancipation of our imaginaries from high-tech patterns
requires expanding the spaces where low-tech can spread, which can
be achieved by combining various strategies. Reforms establishing a
right to repair within a Green New Deal strategy would strengthen
the “do it yourself” culture and help share technical skills. A radically
democratic reappropriation and repurposing of technology would
help create new sustainable technopolitical institutions, under the
inuence of the critical stance and “propaganda of the deed” of the
Luddite strategy. Moreover, the open-source low-tech strategy can
only gain wider support in the face of digital corporations expanding
their power over society and of a looming “degrowth by disaster” –
for example, if high-tech infrastructures crumble under extreme
weather conditions and resource exhaustion.
Synergies towards a low-tech digital democracy?
In order to illustrate some of the strategies described above, we now
consider two examples showing how the hardware and software of
digital technology can be transformed through following degrowth
principles. In combination, they hint at a reorientation of the
dominant digital imaginary towards a sustainable Internet culture
built on the emancipatory ideals of the beginnings of the digital era.
Building a low-tech digital infrastructure
Low-Tech Magazine
(Low-Tech Magazine n.d.) is a website
presenting research into the problems and limitations of the high-
tech paradigm and promoting low-tech solutions, often drawing
on pre-industrial technological knowledge. It was launched in
by Kris de Decker, a journalist specialised in technology, as a means
to question the progress narrative – in the best critical tradition
of the Enlightenment. What was at rst a practically-minded
discussion took a turn towards pregurative politics in with the
development of a low-tech solar-powered version of the website that
would practice what it teaches, in collaboration with designer Marie
Otsuka and artist Roel Roscam Abbing.
e holistic approach of Low-Tech Magazine makes this proof-
of-concept particularly interesting. Beyond the carefully selected
hardware components, hosted at home on a balcony near Barcelona,
the solar website project is an experiment with minimalistic software
design. Indeed, its energy consumption is drastically reduced through
design choices, made transparent to the visitor, and the display of a
battery metre as the background is in itself a political statement. e
architecture of the website is perfectly adapted to its contents, and the
abundant documentation provides insights and inspiration to those
wishing to learn more about the thought-provoking idea of a website
actually going oine during longer periods of bad weather. e idea
that we can adapt our behaviour to available natural resources is made
clear by presenting the printed version of the website as a legitimate
oine version – a solution as much social as it is technological.
e project obtained some funding from a design institution in
its starting phase and is still ongoing. e achievements and open
problems of the project are evaluated and communicated regularly,
making it a long-term experiment. It could be seen as a practical
campaign promoting low-tech ideas, and has been very successful
in this regard, garnering international attention from the media and
being discussed at conferences. e website itself has hundreds of
thousands of visitors a year and inspired the development of several
other websites using solar-powered servers or minimalistic designs.
e project has limited resources and clearly states that it has no
ambition to scale things up, but also provides ideas for others to
expand the experiment.
e solar Low-Tech Magazine project embodies the interstitial
open-source low-tech strategy, building a small-scale alternative at
the margins of an Internet dominated by the high-tech narrative.
Some sites it inspired restrict themselves to reducing their
ecological footprint, but the true emancipatory potential of this
experiment lies in its exemplary value. It shows in great detail how
a digital infrastructure based on a completely dierent technological
assumption could be built, and scaling up the experiment could only
lead to an attempted ruptural transformation. Indeed, the backbone
of the world economy has been thoroughly digitalised and the
infrastructure needed to maintain it could not be rebuilt on low-tech
principles. Interestingly, the Internet is an incredibly heterogeneous
network in which low-tech servers can easily be integrated. Obstacles
to the spread of such servers are thus social and ideological rather
than technical – but as energy and other resources become scarce
with the end of fossil fuels, such a spread might be triggered by
necessity.
Even though the principles of this website naturally hint at a
degrowth narrative about technology, the project does not explicitly
self-identify with degrowth. However, it denitely contributes
to a shift in our technological imaginaries. So much so that it
paradigmatically displays the weakness of any degrowth discourse: as
long as disasters stay unseen, the degrowth discourse can be dispelled
by capitalism and remains unattractive to most people. Only when
one notices that there cannot be a high-tech solution to all problems
– if any – can the low-tech idea gain traction. is strategy is thus
highly context-sensitive: it has more potential in regions with
unstable energy grids or undeveloped communication infrastructures
and oers a response to the degrading conditions induced by
environmental crises.
Strengthening local democracy through digital platforms
Our second example is the software platform Decidim, developed
from onwards in Barcelona to foster participatory democracy
in the city. It allows an institution to manage large group processes
such as planning, budgeting, assemblies, elections or consultations
so that a given instance can be seen as a dedicated social network
for a democratic entity. e components of these processes structure
interactions between users of the platform in a transparent and
traceable manner. e platform was initially created by the city of
Barcelona and supported by regional public institutions but evolved
into a sustainable software ecosystem driven not only by institutions
using it but also by an active community – based on the observation
that open-source projects dependent on few public institutions are
often discontinued, for example, due to lack of funding. It is now
also used by other cities, governments or cooperatives throughout
Europe.
is project reects the entanglement of technical and political
processes inherent to the use of digital technology for mass
communication and organisation. Attempting to develop tools for
participatory democracy, it made its own technopolitical dimension
transparent and democratic by establishing a self-governance system
for its own technical development, called Metadecidim – itself using
Decidim as a decision-making platform, allowing for autonomous
decision-making and conict resolution. e purely technical process
of maintaining the source code is hosted on an external collaborative
development platform. Using or contributing to the project requires
endorsing a social contract describing its guiding principles. Today
Decidim is a rather large project that involves many people and
institutions and managed to secure funding for itself from public
institutions and has been able to take a long-term approach.
e strategy underlying Decidim lies at the crossroads of
interstitial and symbiotic approaches to transformation. Indeed, it
focuses on concretely building alternative forms of politics through
software development and serves as a model for implementing the
principles of the future society it strives for, and yet its driving force
is governmental institutions attempting to reform their political
process. e changes in institutional forms and the ongoing social
empowerment Decidim induces have opened spaces for alternative
politics and support transformational processes in local politics.
us, we could expect that if Barcelona were to become the centre of
a ruptural transformation once more, as it was in , the interstitial
transformations achieved through Decidim would support its
move towards a more democratic organisation of society. From this
perspective, it should not come as a surprise that Decidim originated
in a city that once was the centre of one of the most successful
anarchist experiments in history (Bookchin ): culture and
historical experiences are also key for strategic orientation.
Interestingly, this project can be interpreted as repurposing the
platform technology used by social media networks towards a
participatory form of local democracy that embodies much of the
ideals of the degrowth movement – is this an accelerationist means
to a folk-political end? is is a consequence of the versatility of web
technology and yields a number of questions regarding the relevance
of digital technology for the construction of a degrowth society.
Crucially, Decidim is not oriented towards the development of
productive forces or eciency but aims at facilitating participation
in political processes: even though the ecological costs of running
such software on a large scale and in countless institutions should
be critically investigated, its design cannot trigger in itself the need
for consuming more resources. erefore, its contribution to the
transformation of politics towards a form of collective organisation
involving a high level of individual autonomy – a central principle
for the degrowth movement – is not tainted by the economic bias of
usual platforms and social networks.
It is also important to note that the democratic governance
of Decidim has its limitations in the gap between collective
design decisions and the actual implementation undertaken by
a technical team. Avoiding leaving decisions of programming
and implementation to a small group of developers, with their
inevitable biases, requires reducing the gap between developers and
stakeholders. erefore, this necessitates technical competence to be
shared and disseminated across a larger group of people. is would
be a challenge for any attempt to support democratic processes
through digital technology, as signicant learning and skill-sharing
are pre-requisites.
Inventing technology for a new Great Transformation
e examples of Low-Tech Magazine and Decidim illustrate two
very dierent aspects of digital technology and its role in the struggle
for a degrowth transformation. But even though the approaches
they embody are far from being dominant in discourse and reality,
both contain seeds of a radical transformation of technology.
Indeed, one can envision a technological future where digital
democratic platforms running on a low-tech infrastructure of servers
and networks would play a prominent role in organising society
in an integrated way. However, as the lack of societal control over
technological development is a consequence of the separation of
labour from democracy inherent to capitalism, achieving such a goal
crucially depends on a larger transformation.
Just as the Great Transformation (Polanyi ) gave rise to market
societies by introducing new economic mechanisms, this new
transformation will need to redene how societies coordinate needs
and resources. A digital infrastructure, from servers and networks
to platforms such as Decidim, could support this transformation
by combining transparency and democratic control with ecient
coordination of production and consumption – advantageously
replacing the invisible hand of the market (Daum and Nuss ).
But the degrowth movement should not lose sight of the relative
technical simplicity of Decidim and the role this plays in achieving
its goals: making such a platform into a full-edged techno-utopia
by extending it with algorithmic control and comprehensive data
collection would most likely be counter-productive with respect to
essential democratic and ecological principles.
e most pressing problem to address in the eld of technology
is the high-tech imaginary and its elitist, centralised conception of
knowledge, preventing the democratic process of establishing new
techno-political institutions. is is why symbiotic and interstitial
strategies must be combined to create space for alternative views of
technology. e main challenge lies in making alternatives attractive,
but the economic and ecological devastation of the planet –
through which capitalism brings its own demise – are also powerful
incentives for a deep cultural and political change in attitudes
towards technology. Although rethinking and reappropriating
technology is only a piece of the puzzle, reinventing socially and
ecologically resilient technology is central to any serious attempt at
transformation and is one of the most urgent tasks we face.
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Chapter : Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of energy
By Mario Díaz Muñoz
Introduction
During the last years, the availability of cheap and high energy
density fossil fuels has enabled a dramatic increase in global primary
energy use. is fuelled the uneven global development of modern
industrial economies. While providing enormous amounts of goods
and material wealth, this development is posing existential threats to
humankind, such as climate change and the ecological crisis (Clark
and York ). e shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy
sources is a crucial step in the right direction, but one to tread
carefully. Renewable energy production has a lower energy return per
energy invested (EROI) as compared with fossil fuels, reducing the
overall net energy available to sustain high levels of energy use. In
addition, the production of renewable energy rests on the extraction
of vast amounts of non-renewable raw materials such as lithium,
cobalt, neodymium or nickel which are used for batteries, solar
panel cells and wind turbines, respectively. ese raw materials are
mostly extracted in Global South countries, resulting not only in
environmental degradation during their extraction and allocation
of waste, but also leading to social conicts that involve notions of
(in)justice, sovereignty and distributional conicts. A low-carbon
economy must be, therefore, a socially just and low-energy use
economy.
Under capitalism, economic growth is necessary to keep the
system stable, as well as being deemed as a precondition to satisfy
human needs and well-being. However, the economy is embedded
in the biophysical reality, which means that all economic processes
require energy and materials and produce waste. is makes absolute
decoupling of growth from its environmental impacts – in other
words, green growth, supported by techno-optimists – impossible.
Furthermore, under capitalism, the way energy is produced,
transformed, distributed, and eventually consumed, prioritises logics
of power and prot maximisation over the satisfaction of human
needs and well-being.
Degrowth is put forward as an alternative to tackle not only
decreasing energy and material throughput, but also the enormous
lock-in around production, nance, and the governance of energy to
accommodate a plurality of low-energy visions of society in which
social institutions are not reliant upon growth. While there is an
increasing amount of literature that explores the theoretical and
material feasibility of low energy use scenarios (Millward-Hopkins et
al. ), degrowth scenario analysis (D’Alessandro et al. ) and
complex modelling analyses (Nieto et al. ), there is a challenge
regarding the socio-political feasibility of those scenarios. is poses
a serious question, and the object of this chapter: what strategies
could the Degrowth movement pursue to achieve its energy-related
goals while securing living conditions and basic needs?
is chapter discusses a variety of strategies aimed at transforming
energy systems away from fossil fuels and capitalist relations into
low-carbon and low-energy use social arrangements. I conclude by
highlighting the mutually interdependent and interconnected nature
of these strategies as the key feature of their potential for being
eective.
Resisting and disrupting energy capital
Scientic evidence suggests that, to avoid exceeding a ºC global
warming, more than a third of oil reserves and of gas reserves
need to remain in the ground (McGlade and Ekins ). Yet, the
fossil fuel industry keeps heavily investing in new infrastructure to
expand fuel supply (Piggot et al. ). Simultaneously, investment
in renewable energy is at its record high (BNEF ). Resistance
movements emerge against the backdrop of environmental
degradation, irreversible environmental-social impacts, territorial
dispossessions and issues of control and access rights to resources,
often triggered by fossil fuel projects (Temper ) and, more
recently, low-carbon energy projects (Del Bene et al. ).
Resistance movements threaten to disrupt the circuits of energy
capital – understood as energy-related infrastructure and nancial
assets – while raising the question of who produces energy and for
what purposes.
Resistance movements and actions are formed by Indigenous
people, frontline communities and a wide variety of collectives such
as environmental activists, journalists or social movements – .org,
Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, or the campaign Chiloé
Libré de Saqueo Energético, which the second half of this chapter
focuses on. e Environmental Justice Atlas project, launched in
, currently documents over cases of resistance around
the globe over energy-related projects. It is widely recognised that
these actions and movements inuence the politics and practices of
resource use towards less destructive social and ecological outcomes
(Villamayor-Tomas and García-López ).
e organisation of workshops and discussion groups, civil
disobedience, direct confrontational tactics such as mass arrests,
marches, lockdowns and blockades are part of the extensive
repertoire of strategies. However, there is an uneven distribution
of the consequences of activism. Whereas in some parts of the
world, activists may mainly deal with mass arrests, in other
areas, defenders face physical violence or even murder. In
alone, environmental defenders against energy-related projects
(disproportionately located in the Global South) were murdered
(Global Witness ) and the trend has increased over the last
fteen years (Butt et al. ).
Additional resistance strategies involve the creation of politically
eective – and unexpected – coalitions driven by common interests,
such as the Cowboys and Indians Alliance to stop the Keystone XL
project (Lukacs ). Resistance movements tend to reframe their
demands in terms of collective rather than individual preferences.
Frequently those preferences cannot be reduced to monetary
terms, widening the scope of the political debate for the inclusion
of dierent languages of valuation (Martinez-Alier ). In
addition, the eectiveness of resistance actions is often inuenced
and increased by the level of connectedness between bottom-up
decentralised actions and transnational networks and coalitions.
is last strategy adds an important element to resistance strategies
that signals a shift from “not in my backyard” to “not on my planet”
(Vedder ) or NOPE (Not On Planet Earth).
Legal strategies are double-edged means to stop or slow down the
construction of energy projects. Investor-State Dispute Settlement
mechanisms protect energy capital when energy infrastructure
projects are blocked or interrupted and tend to compensate –
frequently with public money – the nancial investors for their
“lost” potential returns. On the other hand, there are successful
cases of litigation such as the outlawing of the expansion of London
Heathrow airport for not meeting the government’s climate
commitments, the permanent ban on fracking in the state of Paraná
in Brazil, or the Kenyan tribunal cancelling a developer’s licence to
build a new coal plant at Lamu.
Economic strategies are exemplied by the fossil fuel divestment
movement, a broad-based civil society movement aimed at
redirecting nance away from fossil fuels (Healy and Barry
). e movement is currently an international network of
campaigns and campaigners involving , institutions with
divestment pledges reaching US. trillion by mid- (Global
Divestment Commitments Database ). Typical strategies
within the divestment movement involve the creation of alliances
within members of the targeted institution (e.g., senate members
of a university and their nance sta), awareness-raising events,
marches, training workshops on the consequences of divestment –
e.g., stranded assets which in turn increase the uncertainty around
the long-term nancial viability of fossil fuel projects, press releases
to local media and/or open letters from academia that pressure the
institution to divest. In addition, the divestment movement can
simultaneously be understood as a strategy to reframe climate change
as a moral issue by raising questions of legitimation and reputation
and stigmatising the fossil fuel industry while socialising the idea
that fossil fuels are at their endgame (Helm ).
ere is, however, an important potential drawback of the
divestment movement (as briey explained in Chapter ). e
strategy could backre if small companies or state-owned companies,
which are subject to less public scrutiny, buy these assets and start
maximising the returns exploiting the reserves. is could lead to
unintended consequences for the divestment movement (Raval
).
It is crucial to point out that all strategies described above depend
on transnational networks of alliances to avoid cost-shifting and
spatial xes driven by Northern elites (and increasingly Southern
elites too) as a response to disruptions of energy capital. One case in
point is the Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty, a global initiative
that aims at () Preventing the global proliferation of coal, oil and
gas by ending all new exploration and production; () Regulating the
phasing-out and dismantling of fossil fuel production infrastructure
while defending the rights of Indigenous peoples and impacted
communities; and () Fast-tracking collective action for developing
low-carbon pathways that are fair for workers, communities and
countries. ese overarching strategies open the possibility of
broadening the social-ecological transformation beyond solely
transitioning away from fossil fuels, while facilitating the emergence
of collective autonomy and processes of collective self-limitation,
which could be key for low energy use visions.
Building alternatives
Under capitalism, energy systems are predominantly organised
through symbiotic relationships between prot-oriented
transnational corporations and States aiming to control and secure
the ows and stocks of energy to maximise prot and power to
maintain their competitive advantage (Rio ). is is predicated
on the private ownership and control of productive technologies.
erefore, tackling the issue of ownership and control is key to
any degrowth strategy aiming at decreasing energy and material
throughput.
Community energy projects have proliferated over the last
years. ese involve control and ownership over energy utilities,
while also allowing communities to collectively benet from the
outcomes – such as autonomous control and organisation over
energy production and consumption (Seyfang et al. ). Collective
ownership is not a panacea. It could be the case that a collectively
owned enterprise is organised around growth. However, collective
ownership is likely to be the precondition for gaining political
agency and collectively deciding upon goals that would not just limit
energy use, but would also include social measures of redistribution,
reciprocity, equity and justice, opening up possibilities for social-
ecological transformations (Kunze and Becker ).
Strategies towards community energy involve governance tactics
at various scales. At the national scale, centralised governments
can support and enable community energy projects through
research, policy eorts and nancial incentives, grants or direct
support. However, as a response to policy uncertainty – the lack of
policy, planning and intermittent nancial support from national
governments – there has been a mushrooming of transnational
networks of governance amongst relevant cities around the world
such as Cities Climate Leadership Group (C), Cities for Climate
Protection, Fearless Cities network or the Global Covenant of
Mayors for Climate and Energy. e main goal is to align policy
plans with climate targets.
Public participation in policy development is essential to put
an end to the social exclusion of marginalised groups in the
development of energy systems (Pandey and Sharma ). Public
participation raises the issue that hierarchical government-led or
expert centred approaches are not always adequate to address policy
issues and energy developments. One of the main strategies put
forward is the creation of climate assemblies/citizens’ assemblies.
e creation of climate/citizens assemblies is a strategy aiming
to set climate-related mandates for national and local governments
while improving their legitimacy. e set of demands posed by
citizens’ assemblies can range from the creation of debates and
informative sessions, the development of adaptation, mitigation
and resilience plans against climate change, the allocation of funds
towards climate action or pressuring the higher-level government
to take action. However, even if some demands are accepted and
agreed upon with local government ocials, serious challenges can
appear that impede their implementation. Neoliberal pressures of
privatisation and outsourcing limit the capacity of institutional
actors to change locked-in inertia. While it is strategically important
to pursue these pathways for change, community-based responses
are emerging to nd other ways to inuence policy or directly build
parallel alternatives.
At the community level, the strategies are manifold. On one hand,
there is the creation of civil-society-led initiatives such as Transition
Towns and carbon rationing groups (Bulkeley and Newell ).
Transition Towns have grown from only communities in May
to more than , spread over more than countries today.
ey constitute a “quiet, networked revolution” of communities of
practice around the globe and play a key role in mobilising nance,
setting standards of community governance and enabling political
engagement (Rapid Transition Alliance ). In terms of energy-
oriented plans, some initiatives aim at developing community energy
plans for energy descent scenarios – low-energy use communities
powered by renewable energy sources – and for taking back
democratic control over decentralised renewable energy production.
ese types of community-based initiatives form the context in
which social innovations ourish, leading to strategies of scaling-up
demands through all governance levels.
One key community-based social innovation is the development
of Public-Common Partnerships (PCPs). ese are alternative
institutional designs that go beyond state/market dichotomies
to include Commoner Associations – ordinary people associated
with the energy project – and third parties (trade unions or expert
groups). e objective is not just collective ownership, but a
decentralised democratic governance model that embodies new
common senses about energy, democracy, and collective control
(Milburn and Russell ). is is a crucial strategy to build
energy democracy and energy sovereignty at the heart of new energy
systems.
Culturing low-energy use practices
Beyond challenging the very structures of control and growth-
oriented relations that govern energy systems, Degrowth strategies
need to be complemented with demand-side strategies aimed at
drastically reducing energy use and consumption to stay within
planetary boundaries (Grubbler et al. ).
Strategies pertaining to individual behaviour and lifestyles, such as
consumption patterns – e.g., start a vegan diet or lower household
electricity use as well as mobility choices, i.e., more cycling and
less car use, are seen as potential “low-hanging fruits” that could be
applied without signicant trade-os. Dubois et al. () found
that these voluntary decisions could lead to signicant results
by potentially reducing up to of lifestyle-related emissions.
However, excessive focus on individual behaviour has provoked
criticism due to the individualisation of responsibility and issues of
virtue signalling.
In this respect, degrowth strategies need to follow a dual approach
that recognises both: () the transformative role of individual
actions through empowerment and increased political agency and
awareness; and () the acknowledgement that individual behaviours
are conditioned by practices, which in turn are embedded in social,
cultural and economic contexts that reproduce certain patterns of
demand.
From practice theory (Shove et al. ), we know that norms,
values and belief systems play a crucial role in shaping, reproducing
or questioning everyday practices of producing and consuming
resources. Practices need to be rst imagined as concepts against
the backdrop of the dominant “common senses” that rule our
imagination. at is why concepts such as decentralisation,
decommodication, relocalisation of renewable energy sources
and visions of low energy use societies are prerequisites for building
alternatives. en, the materialisation of those alternatives –
cooperatives, networks of care, etc. – act as positive feedback loops
that can establish and reinforce dierent kinds of cultures that
displace the hegemonic one.
Due to the centrality of energy in the way modern economies
and societies function, cultural shifts around it may necessitate re-
culturing dierent ideas about technology, social practices around
mobility, comfort, etc. In this sense, for example, reecting on the
role of technology in transformative post-growth energy systems is
essential to go beyond simplistic techno-optimistic approaches,
towards more a nuanced understanding of the potentials and
engrained logics of technology as embedded in social contexts.
Demand-side structural changes towards climate compatibility,
such as measures to accelerate the decline of particular industries
or new taxes imposed on fuels, can however have regressive
consequences, often aecting poorer members of society. ese
measures can trigger popular backlashes in the form of protests,
which may be amplied by the absence of a cultural shift, and by
vested interests and incumbent actors who make alliances with
disinformation-based extreme right media to stigmatise specic
measures or foster voting mobilisation against them. Here, the
material and cultural aspects of energy are both sides of the same
coin. One important political strategy to overcome these issues
– disinformation campaigns, top-down regressive measures, etc.
– is the proliferation of Just Transition Alliances (JTA) that bring
together environmental advocacy groups, urban dwellers, trade
unions and peoples aected by energy projects. is strategy focuses
on people and power and pays special attention to the history and
concrete context in which the strategy is taking place. JTA are
based primarily on community regeneration, which becomes a pre-
condition and an antidote to social fragmentation driven by the
interests of the few, opening the possibility of collectively designing
low-energy use communities.
Conclusion
It is essential to highlight the interconnected, mutually dependent,
context-specic nature of strategies and tactics (Newell ).
Political praxis is full of contradictions due to competing mental
models between actors about how change emerges, which scales
of action to prioritise, or which concrete next steps are to be
followed. In this chapter I propose how these contradictions can be
strategically minimised by: () building politically eective coalitions
between broad-based movements that reect ideological diversity;
() recognising that the main driver for political mobilisation could
be issues of sovereignty, justice or self-determination rather than
climate concerns (see case example below); () promoting bottom-up
decentralisation, connected through transnational webs of actions;
and () following a dual cultural strategy where individual actions
are both important and embedded in complex culturally – and
materially – based practices.
e development of social boundaries through collective self-
limitation should be at the centre of the energy transition. Since
“there is nothing automatically emancipatory about renewable
energies” (Abramsky ), any transformative strategy needs to keep
in check the social relations that set the governance of production
and consumption (e.g., avoid a productivist approach to energy,
albeit in public hands) and avoid the spatial xes driven by nancial
elites as a response to disruptions of energy capital.
To conclude, how energy is produced and consumed is embedded
in the structures of energy systems. A shift in the use of energy
production and consumption means a shift in the balance of power
of who gets to organise society, what values they espouse, and
what social outcomes they want to full. Any strategy aimed at
transforming energy systems needs to be located in the here and now
while occupying all possible political spaces.
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A case in the eld of energy: the struggle against
energy extractivism in Southern Chile
By Gabriela Cabaña
Chiloé, an archipelago of over islands in the south of Chile, has
been the setting of several waves of plunder and ecological destruction,
and is now facing the possibility of becoming a sacrice zone in the
name of the decarbonisation of the national energy grid. is section
analyses the ongoing campaign Chiloé Libre del Saqueo Energético –
Chiloé Free of Energy Sacking – (Chiloé Libre del Saqueo Energético
) to stop the construction of a new electricity transmission line.
is transmission line would be a mega-infrastructure facilitating the
further expansion of huge renewable energy generation plants on the
archipelago. e Chiloé Libre campaign was initiated in January
as a response to the presentation of the new transmission line by the
company Transelec to the Environmental Impact Assessment System
(Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental-SEIA) four months
earlier. SEIA depends on the state’s Environmental Evaluation Service
(SEA) and is in charge of giving environmental clearance to projects.
Transelec, a transnational consortium composed of Canadian and
Chinese investors, is the main power transmission company in the
country. If constructed, this new line would connect the northern
part of Chiloé’s largest island (Ancud) to the continent
(SEA Chile
). e need to start a coordinated work against the Transelec
project started after a conversation with Longko (Mapuche–Huilliche–
Chono ancestral authority) Clementina Lepío Melipichún, who
knew that some people in the aected area were worried and sought
to stop the project. Conversations between members of the CESCH
(Centro de Estudios Sociales de Chiloé, a local, research-oriented NGO)
and ancestral authorities of the archipelago followed. In a couple of
months, we gathered a team of roughly people, some that would be
directly aected and others from dierent regions of the archipelago,
including people and ancestral authorities from communities in and
outside Ancud.
e key objective of the campaign is the cancellation of the
Transelec project and, more widely, a moratorium on new energy
generation projects until a proper land use plan in the archipelago
(truly democratic and ecologically pertinent) is implemented and
working eectively (Resumen ). is is important because even
though the project we are trying to stop is about energy transmission
and not energy generation, it will make the installation of new
infrastructure like large wind farms feasible, as the current electricity
line that connects to the continent is at the top capacity. is is
concerning for the known negative impact that such large projects
can have on the ecosystems and communities (Avila ). When
we started organising, the rst and urgent step we identied was
the need to take part in the “citizen’s participation”, a space opened
by the SEIA as part of the wider environmental impact assessment
process, in order to receive anyone’s comments and concerns on the
Transelec project, as reported to the SEIA. We contacted NGOs
with dierent expertise and grassroots organisations with experience
with similar processes
. We worked to present citizens’ observations
(as guaranteed by the process of environmental assessment) while
we simultaneously created social media content
to alert people
about this project and the many untold consequences it would
have. Our observations mainly focused on () the lack of proper
baseline observations and incorrect determination of the “inuence
area” of the project (underestimated by Transelec) () the lack
of coherence with existing planning documents, and the lack of
comprehensive land planning documents more generally, () the
impact on landscape, biodiversity and water bodies, unacknowledged
or downplayed in Transelec’s report, () the violation of Indigenous
people’s rights, including insucient compensation for the
damages they would suer and () the grave limitations to citizens’
participation due to the COVID- pandemic. Getting as many
observations and as precise as possible was considered a key step
32 FIMA (Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente), Micólos Chile, Insurgentes Chilwe among others.
33 All pieces can be found on our Facebook page (Chiloé Libre del Saqueo Energético 2021).
to both stop the project (our priority) and maintain high chances
of using legal resources in the future. A key resource was some
members’ prior experience in territory defence, such as the collective
Salvemos Mar Brava that has been opposing the construction of a
wind park (Parque Eólico Chiloé) in Ancud since .
Due to the several stages of approval needed for a project like
this, we foresee the campaign will last at least a few years. We are
still waiting for the report from the SEA and the eventual approval
or rejection by the Minister’s Commission (the nal decision body).
Even if the transmission line is approved and built, the objective of
stopping the proliferation of wind farms will remain. Ocial policy
revolves around the push for the rapid installation of renewable
energy infrastructure to stimulate an exit from fossil fuels, the
“greening” of mining, future economic growth, and the creation
of a green hydrogen industry in which Chile would be a “world
leader” (Ministerio de Energía ). A key element for the nancial
attractiveness and feasibility of green hydrogen is catering to foreign
buyers, especially in Europe. erefore, we expect the interest of
large transnational investors in installing wind farms in the Chiloé
province to only increase in the future.
From local impacts to the wider picture of energy planning
As noted, because the Transelec project has not yet been accepted or
rejected, it is still too soon to say whether the campaign has been
eective in its initial goal of stopping the transmission line. But at
least we have broadened a debate that has little visibility in Chile,
as most activist campaigning focuses (with good reason) on stopping
existing coal power plants and fossil infrastructure. An unforeseen
diculty has been the pandemic and its multiple consequences.
Besides aecting communities in their everyday lives, it has made
any organising extremely dicult. Most of our meetings have been
online, in a mostly rural setting where access to good quality internet
is rare. is makes overcoming the lack of information about the
new line – or plain disinformation in the report presented by
Transelec to the SEIA – very dicult. Many of the documents of the
report are extremely opaque and technical, and nding information
to criticise them is very demanding and slow.
Chiloé is a territory facing multiple ecological crises – from
ecologically predatory salmon farming to illegal dumping sites,
and infrastructure projects such as new highways and a bridge
to the mainland (Mondaca ). is is why a key focus of our
campaign has been to call for respecting local autonomy and self-
determination, and beyond this particular project, to connect with
wider and older struggles. is is also why we have focused and
insisted on the respect of the rights of Indigenous people in the
archipelago, the Mapuche–Huilliche–Chono. But the protection of
rights of these pueblos-nación (First Nations) by ocials is extremely
poor and negligent. We know of other energy-related projects
where the procedures to safeguard their rights (like the ILO
Convention) were violated (Radio JGM ).
Another key lesson is that we need to locate this project in the
larger picture, at the insular, national, and even international levels.
Recurrent comments in reaction to our social media campaign argue
that ours is a case of “Not In My Backyard”; but nothing could be
further from the truth. Both transmission lines and wind farms
are heavy infrastructural interventions in delicate and already very
stressed ecosystems. In existing wind farms in Chiloé, the evaluation
of impacts and the monitoring of changes in elements like soil and
peatlands has been omitted (Durán Sanzana et al. ). In the
larger picture and public debate, and as Chile is planning its way
out of fossil fuels, the social and environmental impact of renewable
energies’ infrastructure remains downplayed.
is neglect also hides the fact that, in most cases (including
Chiloé), the energy generated is not destined for local needs.
It is fundamental to make explicit that most energy demand
(and expected increase in this demand) goes to industry and
mining (Comisión Nacional de Energía ); sectors that leave
little benet to the territories where they function, but rather
perpetuate ecological disasters and the relegation of some places and
communities to being “sacrice zones”.
But the actual need for such
activities is never questioned. is corporate-led energy “transition”
uses “green” as a way of covering the continuation of their extractive
and destructive relation with territories that have been earmarked for
serving as “energy generation nodes” to sustain future growth.
Resistance as a way of “making space” for a dierent future
According to Wright’s () typology, this campaign’s vision of
change follows a symbiotic approach because while it uses existing
institutions to express dissent, it also aims to harness experience to
push for deeper political transformation of those same institutions.
Our current capacity to act is limited by institutional and political
constraints. ere are no regular spaces to prevent or anticipate
predatory projects like this, much less institutional safeguards to
give political power to communities opposing them. Our defence
of the territory can be understood as a way of reducing immediate
and direct harm, but also as a way of creating space for dierent
futures that break from the history and present of plunder and
ecological destruction. ere is no possibility for transcending
structures of capitalist growth if we permit the invasion of mega-
projects like wind farms and transmission lines that would crowd
out the creation of more localised, democratic and ecologically
pertinent forms of livelihood. e installation of several wind parks
across the main island of the Chiloé archipelago could result, as in
other places, in the “emptying” of the countryside and displacement
of traditional ways of life. is alteration of rural life, in addition to
the impacts on biodiversity, is a serious threat to any possibility of a
democratically managed or popular energy transition (Bertinat et al.
).
34 Most places labelled as “sacrice zones” in Chile today are aected by fossil fuels (Fuentes,
Larraín & Poo, 2020).
Connecting struggles for social-ecological transformation
While our campaign does not identify with degrowth, it aligns with
it as it shows the contradictions and shortcomings of implementing
energy transitions without questioning the imperative of economic
growth and its growing energy needs. In Chile’s policy circles and
elsewhere, there is an assumption that energy consumption will
continue to increase in the future, regardless of the uneven ecological
impacts this might have. ere is no exploration of what a future
of lower energy demand might look like, one that, following the
principles of degrowth, manages to give decent lives to all without
sustaining and entrenching existing structures of dispossession and
inequality.
In that sense, the campaign Chiloé Libre has located itself in
explicit dialogue and continuation with other local struggles around
social-environmental conicts. is is why we chose the term
“sacking” and have warned against the emergence of new sacrice
zones, a phrase that has gained currency in Chile’s public debate.
e campaign’s strength draws signicantly from the wider network
of social and political movements based in the archipelago. At the
moment, and as a way of moving towards a wider alliance, we are
articulating a network of recently elected members of local councils
to push together for stronger actions against this and similar projects.
While it is location-specic by nature, our campaign also oers
a window to other situations of dispossession that could emerge in
Chile in the context of the national green hydrogen strategy, which
relies on a dramatic increase in electricity generation to be viable.
erefore, a lesson from this campaign is that interaction and
solidarity with similar issues across the country can help anticipate
and prevent common mistakes or omissions in our actions.
e main limit we have faced is the overwhelming disadvantage
that the institutional architecture gives to organised communities
against mega projects like this. e lesson from this is that existing
legal tools can be a focus of action, but that real pressure can only be
exercised through public exposure of the injustice of the situation,
and by setting the conict on the agendas of people who are not
directly aected.
References
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Chapter : Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of transportation
By John Szabo, omas SJ Smith and Leon Leuser
Introduction
A destructive and wasteful transportation model has developed across
the Global North and further aeld over the last years, emerging
hand-in-hand with a society reliant on fossil fuels. e proliferation
of privately owned, combustion engine-propelled passenger vehicles,
for instance, drives a highly individualised, resource-, time-, and
space-intensive system, as well as one that perpetuates an unjust and
growth-oriented capitalist society. Distances travelled, whether by
land, sea or by air, have been on the rise, and the means to facilitate
this have rapidly expanded (see e.g., USA. FHA ). Today, nearly
a quarter of global CO
emissions originates from the transportation
sector (Solaymani ). In the face of climate change, it has
therefore never been more urgent to take action to recongure the
mobility system. e COVID- pandemic oers yet another fork
in the road. It can provide a structural opening for change, since it
has forced many to travel less at a point in time when the technology
capable of substituting travel is available to many. It also further
exacerbates inequalities.
In this chapter, we provide a humble point of departure for further
action that drives social-ecological change by harnessing degrowth
strategies. Current transportation systems need to be radically
transformed, prioritising social justice and ecological soundness,
and thus decoupled from various forms of exploitation. We explore
strategies that can be adopted to support such a transformation.
Like other authors in this book, we draw on Erik Olin Wright’s four
strategic logics (), which oer valuable insights on how societies
can move towards “Real Utopias” (). We highlight that strategies
are variegated, as are the movements and organisations that employ
them.
Travelling in the wrong direction?
Transportation, in its current form, is destructive on multiple
fronts, which we will briey introduce in this section to
contextualise strategies we explore below. Amongst the most
destructive components of the sector are individually owned fossil
fuel combustion-propelled vehicles – cars, in other words. In the
European Union, of CO
emissions in transportation are
linked to road transport, of which passenger vehicles are responsible
for (EP ). e situation is similar in the USA (USA. EPA
). e material throughput of vehicles is large and growing,
with the rising popularity of larger sport-utility vehicles (SUVs)
(Cozzi and Petropoulos ). Individual ownership exacerbates
the material demands of the industry – making the “green growth”
vision of a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) only a piecemeal solution.
Furthermore, the widespread use of cars is highly dangerous to
humans and wildlife: , people die in trac accidents every day
(WHO ). Air pollution has been on the rise and the negative
implications of this are becoming clearer, with particulate pollution
linked to of deaths globally in (Vohra et al. ). While
data on wildlife deaths is scarce, it was estimated that across just
countries around million animals are killed on roads annually
(Schwartz et al. ), with further destruction reverberating
through ecosystems as the expansion of road systems and associated
pollution drives habitat loss.
Looking more broadly, time-space compression (Harvey )
via increasingly rapid and large-scale transportation systems
has enabled a shift of production to far-ung places to reduce
production costs and underpin an immense freight industry. Bulk
and just-in-time shipping have allowed for goods to be transported
to consumers, who have been able to access products at lower
prices as environmental and labour standards are circumvented by
producers. Meanwhile, the management of rms that developed
these global value chains monitors production and expands relations
with overseas producers through continuous air travel. Combined
with rising demand from consumers for inexpensive goods, this
has supported the expansion of a transportation system that is
extremely environmentally and socially destructive. If we seek to
decarbonise shipping and aviation while remaining within the
connes of current consumer-capitalist logics, there appear to be
few quick xes or technologically palatable alternatives available. A
systemic rethinking, backed up by a spectrum of strategic and radical
intervention, is instead required across the transport sector.
André Gorz noted that the key to dealing with the contemporary
problems of transportation is to consider it alongside other pressing
issues. He argues “never (to) make transportation an issue by itself.
Always connect it to the problem of the city, of the social division of
labour, and to the way this compartmentalises the many dimensions
of life” (Gorz , ). e strategies we have gathered aim to
support this very vision.
Taming transportation
Taming the transportation sector entails the introduction of
sweeping interventions (often top-down, though against the
background of wider public pressure) that conne it and the damage
that it yields. A point of departure is the phasing out of subsidies
for highly emitting modes of transportation – such as diesel vehicles
or air travel (Transport & Environment ) and levying taxes on
polluting means of transport or outright capping them (Gössling
and Humpe ; Stay Grounded ). Taming road transport has
begun with the introduction and tightening of emissions standards
– although recent emissions scandals show how far producers
will go to circumvent regulation. Less polluting vehicles can yield
incremental benets, such as newly popular electric passenger
vehicles oering some environmental gains vis-à-vis their internal
combustion counterparts. However, their diusion will not allow for
climate targets to be met due to the so-called “long tailpipe” eect
(Milovano et al. ). e bare minimum of vehicles necessary
could be electric, but the transition in propulsion systems has to
be paired with the reduction of vehicle ownership and a shift to
alternative modes of travel (Henderson ).
Communities can tame road transport by regulating space and
access to space. Some urban areas already do so by limiting access
by particular vehicles. Cities can adopt measures to make car
use unattractive through parking space management, congestion
charges, the closing of roads, and the establishment of speed limits.
Historically, heavy-duty vehicles have been banished from urban
areas, but local residents and city councils are gradually pushing
to ban (emitting) passenger vehicles from urban spaces as well.
Oslo and Ljubljana, for instance, have been leaders in going car-
free within the city centre. Car-free zones are essential in limiting
pollution and allowing dwellers to reverse current car-centred
infrastructure’s colonisation of urban space. Restrictions should not
be tied solely to emissions standards or vehicle-based charges, since
this tends to privilege the wealthy. Rather, sweeping restrictions on
all but essential vehicles ought to be introduced, paired with social
policies which compensate those less well-o who need to adjust to
a new setting. In tandem, complementary enabling infrastructure,
such as bicycle paths, (regional, aordable or free
, and accessible)
rural-urban public transportation, as well as “park and ride”
infrastructure need to be introduced to facilitate a transformation.
Strategic potential for taming the transportation system cannot be
assessed in isolation from the relative political-economic power of
the automotive and aviation sectors. Six of the world’s fty largest
35 e long tailpipe refers to the need to consider emissions and pollution during the entire
life-cycle of vehicles and the sources of electricity on which electric vehicles run on to
obtain an idea of whether they indeed contribute to lower emissions.
36 Vehicle sharing can also play a crucial role, as discussed in the case study below.
37 A number of cities and regions (such as Luxembourg and Tallinn, Estonia) have
experimented with free public transport in recent years, deeming public transport
infrastructure to be a default public resource akin to street lighting or footpaths. In other
cases, the objective has been to ensure very low prices.
companies, by revenue, are in the automotive sector (Fortune
). is inherently drives a growth-oriented model of vehicle
ownership, as politicians have an interest in stabilising employment
and economic growth, while rms seek to increase shareholder value.
e issue needs to be tackled from a number of fronts. A greater
voice for labour and the support of unionisation should be linked
to long-term strategic thinking that pressures company executives
to re-consider social-ecological aspects of their current operations.
NGOs, new mobility actors (e.g., car-sharing, bicycle manufacturers,
or public transport companies), and social movements can highlight
bad practices and oer palatable alternatives, although we must be
wary of the likes of Uber co-opting a language of transport sharing
in support of their models based on the wide-scale exploitation of
people. Citizens can also introduce product purchasing boycotts
regarding vehicles in general, but specically directed towards
problematic rms and models. While not wanting to overly
emphasise individual action to achieve political goals, boycotts and
their associated political mobilisation have been proven eective in
the past (Tomlin ).
Dismantling the transportation system
Taming transportation has to be paired with its dismantling, that
is to say, establishing alternative modes of organising the sector.
Overall, kilometres travelled by people and freight need to be
reduced. A part of this can be linked to the use of technology, but
it also entails that communities are empowered to explore the joys
the “local” has to oer. e COVID- pandemic has shown that
virtual meetings can oer a substitute to in-person meetings with
a substantially lower environmental footprint (Faber ). ese
should not substitute all human interaction, and such technologies
have their own ecological impacts, but they may be used to minimise
travel, especially in the case of business dealings. Simultaneously, in
the right social conditions, individuals can free up time to participate
and re-discover the pleasure of community-building and activities
taking place in local neighbourhoods (Soper ).
e reconguration of national and regional transportation could
be supported by the rapid deployment of a railway system developed
as part of a degrowth-oriented Green New Deal (Mastini et al.
). is may not be a suitable solution in all contexts and must
take shape through transparent and democratic citizen engagement.
Politicians and activists have called for private jets and short-
haul ights to be phased out, to be replaced with comprehensive
funding for rail network expansion (Asquith ) – France seems
to be making shy headway on this front by banning some short-haul
ights where substitutable by rail. is would re-establish rail as the
prime form of long-distance travel, including greater frequency and
streamlined services, a renaissance in night trains, high-speed lines,
and rail-based freight. Democratic ownership would provide the
backbone for a just development of this system, allowing for the
engagement of impacted communities and the introduction of cross-
subsidisation to ensure equitable access for all. Public ownership is
essential more broadly for the erosion of the current transportation
system, as it allows the public to exert greater pressure on the
incumbent system and shape it according to social needs, rather than
to prot.
Another key form of parallel transportation institution is support
for bicycles and e-bikes, often through dismantling car-centric
infrastructures. As Ivan Illich () points out, the bike is an
especially convivial mode of transportation and it is also amongst
the most ecient modes of urban transportation. e COVID-
pandemic has begun a renaissance of the bicycle, momentum which
policy-makers should maintain by providing support for further
infrastructure (e.g., the repurposing of roads) and subsidies for
bicycles. A number of successful initiatives throughout the world
have shown that there is ample demand for cargo bicycles, which
could alleviate the space, material, and energy-intensity of intra-
urban transportation of goods as well.
Resisting the transportation system
Resisting the current transportation model has become paramount.
Social movements of various kinds have taken to disrupting
emission-intensive modes of transport, targeting them for symbolic
and practical reasons. Street protests and occupations in the s
and s played a key role in resisting the ubiquity of the car in
cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, with visible eects to the
present day. Movements need not only be in resistance to specic
causes, but also in support of certain ones. Since the early s,
Critical Mass events have been important points of departure in
reclaiming the streets and raising awareness for the support of
bicycles and requisite infrastructure through direct action. Such
inclusive mass mobilisation has been crucial in empowering pro-
bicycle movements globally, essential to moving the transportation
system away from its entrenched practices.
Airports have also been at the heart of social resistance, and the
willingness of locals to participate in demonstrations is heavily
shaped by the negative ramications of airports (Liebe et al. ).
Given the close links between climate action and social justice,
strategies need to involve, empower, and amplify the voices of
those most aected by negative repercussions. Here, again, localised
forms of pollution, such as noise or heightened trac, can be key
instigators of protests to the expansion of airport infrastructure. In
recent years, we have seen a number of campaigns emerge around
such causes (e.g., protests against London Heathrow or Vienna
Airport). Contesting these projects through demonstrations have not
always been successful but can clearly bear fruit, especially in a post-
pandemic world where the normality of air travel is questioned. A
notable instance of strategic resistance was the ZAD (zone à défendre)
in opposition to a proposed airport near Nantes in France. Building
on decades of local resistance, zadists squatted land and led the
opposition, which ultimately resulted in the cancelling of the airport
by the French government (ZAD ).
e disruptiveness of social movements will certainly have to
be scaled up. Chenoweth and Stephan () argue that peaceful
resistance works, given the low barriers to entry and the rising
engagement from all across the social spectrum, but movements
are eective when they have leverage – that is, when they can
disrupt and compromise the system in place. Extinction Rebellion’s
actions to shut down circulation and travel reect the power social
movements can assert. e determination to protest is increasingly
evident, as we have seen with the Fridays for Future movement,
but these movements need to be supported by a broader social base
and include more targeted direct action as well, as suggested by
Chenoweth and Stephan and others. Broader support for actions
to change our transport system can be achieved by highlighting
the importance of addressing the social justice aspects of changes
in transport systems whilst limiting its environmental impacts. e
poorer strata of society who bear the brunt of climate events and air
pollution, as well as being under-served by mobility systems, should
be the rst to benet from more thorough intervention.
In parallel to underpinning the legitimacy of movements, more
militant action can be taken by social movements as well. “Sabotage
can be done softly” (Stern , n.a.) as has been argued and shown
by Andreas Malm and other activists. Interventions such as releasing
the air from the tires of expensive SUVs target both strata of society
(the wealthy) and emitting sources (SUVs) that are amongst the
most harmful artefacts in the transportation system. ese “nudges”
can spark debate and deter ownership of highly emitting vehicles,
which can be paired with public media campaigns that underscore
just how dangerous these vehicles are for others on the road.
Introducing soft nudges and resistance through interventions such
as painting guerilla bicycle lanes, closing roads and so on can be
essential to averting deeper social conicts in the future.
Escaping transportation
Escaping transportation relates to attempts to escape the dominant
structures of transport and introduce solutions outside the system.
Often emerging in the form of various “nowtopian” initiatives,
formed in protective niches, these are attempts to build parallel
institutions and practices outside the mainstream transport sector. In
its most extreme forms, escape entails eliminating motorised travel
from one’s life. Henry David oreau’s Walden ( ()) is one
inuential guide to such “simple living”. In it, oreau ( (),
) asks, “if we want to stay at home and mind our business, who
will want rail roads?” Similar to Illich’s () analysis of the counter
productivity of cars, oreau argued that at the time he was writing,
travel by foot would actually be the fastest means, when the wages
required to pay for more industrial means of transport were taken
into account – a point that continues to be prescient (see e.g., Heller
). oreau also criticises the mechanisation and labour required
for constructing railways, arguing that “(w)e do not ride on the rail
road; it rides upon us ... if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail,
others have the misfortune to be ridden upon” ().
In a similar vein of escape, François Schneider, a pioneering
degrowth activist and thinker, set out for a year-long tour of
France on foot in , accompanied by a donkey, to research and
propagate the virtues of slowness and degrowth (Demaria et al. ).
is may seem quirky or irrelevant to broader change. However, a
related ethos of encouraging walking and slow mobility can be
seen in the recent drive to create “superblocks” by the municipal
government of Barcelona – territorial units of nine blocks which
restrict trac and aim to increase walkability, social cohesion, and
green spaces. Initially facing opposition from local businesses,
creating a culture of walkability has produced a broadly win-win
situation, enhancing local vibrancy, local business, and human
health. If coupled with the relocalisation of food production and
other needs – rather than gentrication and new forms of exclusion
– this can be a powerful tool.
Similarly, for the last fty years, Freetown Christiania, an
autonomous -acre community in the centre of Copenhagen, has
banned the internal combustion engine from within its self-governed
vicinity (Smith ). Engagement with such experiments can
also bear the seeds for wider change: still needing to move goods
and people around the large site, one Christiania resident invented
a robust type of cargo bike – the Christiania Bike – which is now
popular around the world. Christiania’s experiment thrived alongside
Copenhagen’s bike culture, which is one of the most successful in
the world. In a similar way, volunteer-run community bike kitchens
and repair cooperatives around the world have created parallel
infrastructures for bike maintenance and repair infrastructure.
Conclusion
In this chapter, we have made a brief attempt to lay out some
possible battlegrounds and strategic opportunities in the search
for degrowth of transportation. ere is much more, of course,
that could (and should) be said. Reecting on the open-endedness
of social transformation, the social ecologist and critic of growth
Murray Bookchin outlined that it is advantageous to establish a
exible programme in this search. While posing certain “minimum”
and “transitional” demands (taxing airline fuel for instance, or
incentivising night trains), he said we should always be guided by
“maximum demands”, in this case for a thoroughly democratic and
degrowth-oriented mobility sector. We also ascribe to this ethos and
call for these and further strategies to be considered by communities
across the globe, so as to impede the destruction perpetuated by the
growth-oriented fossil fuel-based transportation system currently in
place.
We admit that distinctions between the various strategic logics laid
out above are not necessarily clean cut. Any one space, movement or
initiative can incorporate aspects of taming, dismantling, resistance,
and escape, all at the same time. Given the widespread nature of
capitalist mobility, action for degrowth in the transportation sector
will need to be contextual and broad-based – aimed at a variety of
political and institutional levels, from the grassroots to the more
institutional, and from reformism to revolution. We also believe that
it is crucial to acknowledge that these strategies may be contradictory
on occasion. For instance, there is an evident conict between most
forms of escapism and the build-out of a larger railway network. But
we posit that when developed in accordance with the core objectives
of democratisation and degrowth, they are reconcilable in the long
term.
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A case in the eld of mobility and transport: the
Autolib’ car-sharing platform
By Marion Drut
Vehicle sharing exists at the intersection between private cars and
public transport. Such initiatives have multiplied over the last decade
with growing citizen participation (Firnkorn and Shaheen ;
Drut ; t-bureau de recherche ). Degrowth calls for more
collective property and sharing (Jarvis ). Vehicle sharing oers
the potential of wider processes of social-ecological transformation,
propelled by two drivers of change. First, sharing vehicles means
fewer vehicles will be needed in the economy to meet the same
level of needs. e second lever is the demotorisation that it causes.
Estimates of several case studies throughout Europe and Canada
highlight a decrease in the distance travelled by drivers enrolled in
a car-sharing system from to (Sioui et al. , Meijkamp
). is chapter analyses to what extent the experience of the
Autolib’ platform, a one-way station-based car-sharing system
in
Paris, can be a potential strategy towards degrowth. As such, the case
study is necessarily limited to a Western context.
e Autolib’ platform
e Autolib’ project was rst conceived in early by Bertrand
Delanoë, leftist mayor of Paris, as a follow-up to the bicycle-
sharing Velib’ system set up in Paris in . e main objective
was to reduce car ownership in the Paris region. As more Autolib’
cars are available for public use, at a fair price and with dedicated
parking spaces, car drivers are encouraged to abandon their privately
owned cars. e issue of parking spaces is of particular concern in
densely populated areas such as the Paris urban area. According to
ocial communication, each Autolib’ car would replace cars. e
secondary objective was to substitute fossil fuel cars for electric cars
38 Vehicles can be driven back to any station.
in order to cut down CO emissions. Setting up a large-scale car-
sharing system was thought of as one possible project to achieve a
low-carbon mobility strategy in the Paris urban area.
e Autolib’ platform was a public car-sharing service
implemented in December and closed in July . e
platform oered a eet of almost , electric cars spread over ,
stations located in municipalities (Paris and its surroundings).
Autolib’ cars were available for public use on a spontaneous basis
(subscription eective immediately) and at a quite low price.
e
Autolib’ platform was operated by the Autolib’ company, a subsidiary
of the multinational transportation company Bolloré, through
a public service delegation contract (public-private partnership)
covering the period from December to the end of . It
employed workers.
Autolib’s successes and failures
e Autolib’ platform showed mixed results. In the short run, the
achievement of the initial objective (decrease in car ownership rates)
was questioned by a study from the City of Paris published two years
after the implementation of the platform (Razemon ). Although
Autolib’ targeted existing car drivers, of Autolib’ drivers did
not own any car and mainly used public transport, and, even worse,
of Autolib’ drivers seemed to get used to automobility and
considered buying a car in the future. Among the of Autolib’
drivers who did own a car, only a third had considered selling it. An
explanation for this failure is that the Autolib’ platform operated
mainly in the city centre: out of the , Autolib’ stations
were located in Paris. Autolib’ was a transport mode mainly used by
Parisians moving within Paris, and used only to a lesser extent in the
suburbs. In the city centre, alternative modes are available like public
transport, cycling and walking. Consequently, Autolib’ competed not
39 e cost includes an annual subscription (120 in 2017) and a variable cost increasing
with the time spent using the car (6 for each 30 minutes), or a xed reservation cost of
1 and a variable rate of 9 for each 30 minutes for occasional drivers.
only with private cars, but also with more sustainable transportation
modes. Second, the potential of attracting non-car users to using
cars is particularly strong when car ownership rates are low because
there is a greater proportion of potential new drivers: only .
of Parisians owned a car in (INSEE ). As suggested by the
experience of other car-sharing systems, car-sharing would have
created more desirable outcomes if operated in peri-urban locations
where car ownership rates are higher and where low-carbon transport
alternatives are scarcely used.
On the other hand, a study published in by an independent
consulting rm providing expert services on transport policies showed
dierent results. ey clearly observed a decrease in the number
of private vehicles owned by Autolib’ users after their subscription
to the car-sharing system (t-bureau de recherche ). According
to the study, an Autolib’ vehicle replaces three private cars and frees
two parking spaces. In addition, after subscribing to the platform,
an Autolib’ driver travels km less per month compared to before,
which corresponds to an reduction in the vehicle-kilometre
travelled (both from their private car and the Autolib’ car) (Ibid.). is
reduction in mileage does not occur because Autolib’ drivers travel
less, but rather because they tend to shift to other mobility modes, like
public transport and walking (Louvet ). of Autolib’ drivers
used their private car daily before subscribing to the platform, against
after their subscription, indicating a decrease in daily private
car use (Ibid.). Other transportation modes used daily by Autolib’
users saw a much smaller decrease. Car sharing builds on long-term
changes in mobility patterns towards low car-usage lifestyles, and lower
car ownership rates (Firnkorn and Shaheen ; Martin and Shaheen
; Meijkamp ). e Autolib’ platform competed primarily
with private motorised modes – that was one of its successes. Another
40 Mobizen, now Communauto, a car-sharing system mainly used by Parisians to go outside
the city centre, showed a higher shift from private cars (6t-bureau de recherche 2014):
the share of drivers using their private car daily decreased by 93% after subscribing, while
the share of most alternative modes increased from 30% for bicycle-sharing to 2–4% for
walking and public transport. Only the daily use of private bicycles slightly decreased
(–6%).
success of the project was the eective sharing of cars: each Autolib’
car was used on average between and times a day (Louvet ). All
other things equal, meeting the same level of mobility needs with both
fewer vehicles and lower car usage reects a wider process of social-
ecological transformation.
Last but not least, the Autolib’ company claimed a million
annual loss in and forecasted future yearly losses that went
beyond what the Autolib’ rm had agreed to support. is situation
was in conict with the engagement of the municipalities to
provide a no-cost public service for their citizens and resulted in
the termination of the contract and the end of the Autolib’ service.
One reason – probably not the only one – for these losses was the
decreasing number of Autolib’ users (, subscribers but only
, trips a day in ), due to the rise of private hire services
and of free-oating bicycles and motor-scooters (Farge ). e
quick end of this project due to nancial reasons shows another
kind of failure as well. Private industrial stakeholders seek short term
monetary prots and may not settle for long term non-economic
benets. Protability is usually not a criterion – much less a purpose
– for public services, for instance, public transport. Rather, social
utility is central. Considering social and environmental costs and
values as well may have led to a more desirable scenario. A social-
ecological transformation would benet from cooperation rather
than competition. As they become capitalised and institutionalised,
vehicle sharing systems must comply with capitalist and institutional
requirements. is may contribute to, even hasten, their fall – as
described in the Autolib’ case study.
In conclusion, the Autolib’ project experienced mixed results, with
failures such as encouraging people to become drivers and operating
an inadequate business model that led to the end of the initiative,
and also limited successes – but still successes – in demotorising
Autolib’ drivers who owned private vehicles, and by proving that
large-scale use of shared cars was a possible mobility option at the
level of an urban area (Louvet ).
Autolib’: A symbiotic strategy based on a ruptural element
Cars are overwhelmingly the dominant mode of transport in western
societies, including in cities where many alternative travel options
are provided, from public transport to cycling and walking. e
car is used for of passenger-kilometres in the European Union
in (Eurostat ) and for of trips in France (France.
Ministère de la transition écologique ). Western societies are still
embedded in private individual automobility, where individual cars
often remain a genuine societal cult object which conveys symbolic
representations. e observed reduction in car use reects a change
in the relation the driver has to the vehicle. e shift is from owning
to accessing, from individual to collective, from monetary exchange
value to social use-value.
Nikolaeva et al. () dene the concept
of “commoning mobility”, based on the idea that mobility is not
only a question of individual freedom but can be considered as a
collective good, ie. as a common. Shared mobility allows – forces –
us to have a systematic approach to mobility and encourages a logic
of commoning. Vehicle sharing thus entails a ruptural element at the
individual level as it disrupts and opens up a space that is inherently
individualistic.
e Autolib’ project involved powerful actors: the Bolloré company
and the City of Paris. e former, as a private rm, was seeking short
term prot while the latter, as a public body, was aiming to reduce
car ownership. Such a compromise between private actors whose
concerns drastically diverge from degrowth and others who support
degrowth objectives, although not explicitly, falls within what Erik
Olin Wright () calls a symbiotic transformation. e Autolib’
example highlights that symbiotic transformations have features that
can either lead to success (powerful actors have the potential to be
heard and followed) or failure (private actors are prot-seekers and
their core beliefs and objectives contradict degrowth). Pushing such
transformations towards success is a hard task.
41 Using a shared vehicle rather than a private one creates benets not only for the driver but
also for others in society (ie. through reduced congestion).
Towards social-ecological transformation:
a road paved with challenges
Presenting a car-sharing project as a degrowth strategy for mobility
is challenging. Indeed, car-sharing as it is currently experienced and
implemented has the impression of being far from desirable social-
ecological transformation. To my mind, however, shared mobilities
convey a ruptural element at the individual level and therefore
have the potential to lead to broader and more desirable social-
ecological transformation. Fostering commonly shared mobilities
– including automobility – can represent a transition towards
degrowth. However, when strategising for degrowth and following a
symbiotic strategy, one must take care not to jeopardise degrowth’s
aims (suciency, social justice, ecological justice, commoning, well-
being etc.). Autolib’ was not a satisfactory degrowth strategy. Indeed,
although the Autolib’ project induced long-term changes in mobility
patterns towards low car-usage lifestyles, outcomes were limited and
subject to criticism.
Deep knowledge of the local context appears decisive, although
not sucient, to engage citizens. Autolib’ was operated in the Paris
region only, in partnership with local authorities, but failed to engage
local stakeholders on a long-term basis.
Another core limit to vehicle-sharing as a degrowth strategy is
the positioning of stakeholders. Operators of car-sharing platforms
(private or public bodies) generally do not identify with degrowth,
although the initial objective, car reduction, overlaps with degrowth
objectives. Nonetheless, several studies highlight the ecological
convictions of shared vehicle users (Kawgan-Kagan ; Schaefers
). is limit can turn into an opportunity: successful degrowth-
oriented projects would multiply if stakeholders identied with
degrowth and conducted strategies explicitly in line with degrowth
principles.
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Economic and political
reorganisation
Chapter : Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of care
By Corinna Dengler, Miriam Lang and Lisa M. Seebacher
Introduction
We are living through multiple and overlapping crises, which
are further exacerbated by the COVID- pandemic. In seeking
transformative solutions, we need to move away from the growth-
dependent economic system that is structurally based on extractive
capitalism, white supremacy, coloniality, and patriarchy. is chapter
focuses on degrowth strategies for the highly gendered sphere of
care/care work and puts an emphasis on strategies that prioritise
people and the planet over prot. After briey introducing the
concepts of care/care work and outlining how we combine Erik Olin
Wright’s and Nancy Fraser’s views on strategies of transformation,
we discuss and evaluate degrowth strategies contributing to Christa
Wichterich’s (, ) triple-R goal of redening, redistributing, and
revalorising, thereby contributing to care and health for all.
Care and care work: a brief introduction
e concept of care/care work is sometimes used synonymously
with social reproduction/reproductive work and indeed there are
many overlaps: Raising children, caring for the elderly, cooking for
atmates or in a community kitchen – if unpaid, these activities are
both unpaid care work and social reproduction. However, there are
dierences in the socio-historical evolution of these concepts. Social
reproduction/reproductive work emerges from a feminist Marxist
tradition that conceptualises work performed without remuneration
as a counterpart to production/wage work. e concept of care/
care work is broader and arguably less political. In emphasising the
content of work, it refers not only to unpaid but also to paid care
work provided, for example, by the state, the market, or the non-
prot sector.
Although it is hard to nd a general denition of care work, a
common denominator is the relationality and (inter-)dependency
inherent to care. In a narrow sense, care is often dened as caring
activity provided by a caregiver to a care receiver, involving emotions
and intimacy as well as asymmetrical power relations, limited
autonomy, and vulnerability (Tronto , Jochimsen ).
Dependency on care – framed as exceptional in a society that regards
independent, autonomous, and self-sucient hetero-masculinities as
ideal – is something all lives begin with, and most lives end with.
Broader conceptions of care go beyond human subject-subject
relations: Care as a keystone of social-ecological transformation is
not only directed towards persons, but also to non-human life-forms
and the complex web that makes life on the planet possible (Pacto
Ecosocial del Sur , e Care Collective ).
In the current economic system, unpaid care work is invisibilised
and highly gendered. Being the necessary precondition for every
production process in the monetised economy, unpaid care work
is regarded as a free subsidy, performed mostly by women in
heteronormative households, without monetary compensation and/
or social recognition (Himmelweit , Jochimsen and Knobloch
, Dengler and Strunk ). Time use studies, employing a
binary understanding of gender, indicate that women perform ¾ of
the unpaid care work globally (ILO , f). In the paid care sector
roughly ⅔ of the care workers are women (ibid., f). e liberal
feminist “emancipation through wage work” – narrative from the
s – has left many women with the unsatisfactory choice to either
perform unpaid care work in their “second shift” (Hochschild )
or to outsource this work to paid care workers, e.g., poorly paid
(often migrant) women in elderly care or early childcare institutions.
e COVID- pandemic highlights the feminist argument that
the wealth and well-being of the world are fundamentally built upon
the invisibilised and feminised sphere of social reproduction (FaDA
). Closed childcare facilities and schools have exacerbated the
gendered division of labour in the “private sphere” of households
(Bahn et al. ), sometimes coupled with problematic tendencies
such as rising levels of gendered violence in families during the
pandemic (Roesch et al. ). However, even when unpaid care
work is shifted to the paid care sector it is often “valorised but
not valued” (Dowling ). is particularly holds for marketed
care, which is systematically underpaid and often pressured for
protability and eciency. Regarding public provisioning, it is
noteworthy that welfare states are historically patriarchal and
colonial, reproduce binary heteronormativity, and claim unjust
amounts of global resources (Koch and Mont , Bhambra and
Holmwood , Dengler and Lang ). Neither marketised care
nor welfare states are a blueprint for a Just Transition around care,
let alone global social welfare. A degrowth society ideally values
care work without valorising it and collectively shares the joys
and burdens that care work entails beyond the “private sphere” of
heteronormative families on the one hand and “public” market, state,
and non-prot organisation provisioning on the other, focusing on
collective forms of caring.
Conceptual notes on strategies for transformation
We propose to read the categorisation of strategies for anti-capitalist
transformation formulated by Wright () as a descriptive,
explanatory framework, whose categories are not mutually exclusive
and should not be hierarchised. Wright’s denition of ruptural
transformation seems the most radical strategy at rst. In the long
history of
th
-century revolutions, however, it has merely led
to recongurations of power and new elites, neither overcoming
the growth imperative nor building sustainable modes of social
reproduction. Interstitial transformations which operate from the
margins can cover a broad range of strategies. ey can aim at
“escaping” capitalism in rather self-centred ways or at multiplying
horizontally (scaling-out) until they create the opportunity for
systemic change. In pregurative spaces where logics of conviviality,
solidarity, and reciprocity are practised, they potentially produce
transformative subjectivities (Global Working Group Beyond
Development ). We agree with Ekaterina Chertkovskaya
(Chapter ) that symbiotic strategies, operating within the realm of
existing institutions, run the risk of co-optation. Nevertheless, they
are needed to generate conditions that allow interstitial strategies
to scale out and thrive. In this chapter, we combine Wright’s ideas
with Fraser’s () framework, which is more common in feminist
reasoning: Armative strategies work within a given structure, while
transformative strategies aim at changing the structure itself. However,
armative strategies potentially “give rise to transformative eects
because they alter relations of power and thereby open a path for
further struggles that become increasingly radical over time” (Fraser
and Jaeggi , ). We, therefore, sympathise with concepts like
“non-reformist reforms” (Gorz ), “concrete utopias” (Bloch
), or “revolutionary realpolitik” (Luxemburg ).
Strategies towards care for all and their relevance for degrowth
e following section introduces and evaluates three strategies that
seek to redene, redistribute, and revalue unpaid care work by
establishing dierent () wage systems, () time regimes, and ()
modes of organising care in a degrowth society. ough not being
the main focus of this chapter, we deem it necessary that waged work
in the health and care sector needs to be thoroughly revalued in
terms of fair wages, dignied working conditions, and more time for
preventive and holistic care.
Changing wage relations and redening work
Wage labour is a dominant structure of capitalist growth-based
societies that forces people who depend on wages to prioritise
wage work over all other forms of work and activities (Weeks
). Hence, changing wage relations is a central precondition
of redening, redistributing, and revaluing all kinds of socially
necessary work. In this section, we discuss the Wages for Housework
(WfH) campaign, the Care Income (CI), and a Universal Basic
Income (UBI) as means towards this end.
e international “Wages for Housework” (WfH) campaign
drew on the intellectual ideas of Mariarosa Dalla Costa (),
Selma James () and Silvia Federici (), who co-founded the
International Feminist Collective (IFC). e IFC launched the
WfH-campaign in and soon had WfH-working groups across
Europe, North America and even in, for example, Mexico and
Argentina, and thematic groups such as the Wages Due Lesbians and
Black Women for Wages for Housework (Toupin ). Before the term
“care work” was coined, the campaign had the dual aim of making
reproductive work – until then considered a “labour of love” – visible
as the foundation of the economy and subverting the capitalist
system. In the context of the feminist movement in the s, WfH
can be read as a critique of the liberal feminist notion of integrating
women into the unquestioned category of (male-connoted) wage
labour. WfH was criticised for aiming at institutionalising the
gendered division of labour and for asking to include reproductive
work into capitalist valorisation (e.g., Davis ). However, WfH
was not intended as realpolitik or a symbiotic strategy in Wright’s
terms, but as a radical provocation both to the capitalist system (by
exposing that it was nurturing on invisible constant subsidies) and to
patriarchy (by questioning the gendered division of labour). In this
sense, WfH aimed at ruptural, transformative change in a historical
period when interstitial transformation was thriving.
Building on WfH and the the Bejing platform consensus to
“make unpaid care work count” in national accounting, the Care
Income (CI) is a symbiotic proposal aiming at compensation for
unpaid care work supported by the Global Women’s Strike (),
several degrowth scholars (e.g., Barca ), and the Green New
Deal for Europe (). e CI is a form of “participation income”
(Atkinson ), issued to carers by state institutions. By demanding
capital for socially necessary yet appropriated and invisibilised care
work, the CI aims to redistribute wealth to those caring for “people,
the urban and rural environment, and the natural world” (Global
Women’s Strike ), thereby strengthening the social position
of carers and the recognition of care work. By putting an emphasis
on people who perform care work, the proposal directly addresses
the gendered distribution of care work and raises transformative
and ruptural questions of power. However, the CI also exhibits
armative elements as it aims at monetising care rather than
widening the decommodied dimensions of life. Wichterich (,
) points out that conditional cash transfers always bear the risk
of “neoliberal co-optation that seeks individual and monetary
solutions to problems of social inequalities.” Moreover, the practical
necessities to prove one’s eligibility for a care income in practice
bear problematic dimensions of surveillance, humiliation, and
bureaucracy (Baker ). Hence, the transformative potential of a
CI largely depends on its concrete design. Up to date, a CI has not
been implemented but is advocated for by several groups around the
globe (e.g., IWRAW Asia Pacic , Barca et al. ).
e proposal of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) avoids the pitfalls
of eligibility as it envisions a regular, xed, age-dependent amount of
cash granted to everyone (Torry ). Due to the harsh economic
crisis and the massive increases in inequality in the COVID--
context, debates around UBI were boosted in dierent world regions
and gained support from international institutions (e.g., ECLAC
). Whilst the UBI is not specically focused on care, several
feminist scholars discuss it as a strategic possibility to reorganise,
revalue, and redistribute care work (Zelleke ; Winker ).
Like the CI, the UBI is a symbiotic proposal distributed by state
institutions, however, without investing those with the power to
decide on eligibility, as it is universal. From a feminist perspective,
the ruptural transformative potential of a UBI lies in the possibility
to decouple social security from wage labour (e.g., Schulz ,
Winker ). It allows for socially re-valuing unpaid forms of
work without monetising them and, more generally, for interstitial
strategies to thrive. However, a UBI is no automatism for a gender-
just redistribution of care work among all members of society and
crucially depends on a cultural shift and complementary measures
(Katada ). More recent proposals underline the centrality of
care within UBI arrangements by reformulating it as “Universal
Care Income” (Kallis et al. , ). Some applications of UBI in
peripheral regions of the Global South (e.g., in Kenya, see Lowrey
) subsidise growth by mitigating poverty and improving
productivity, e.g., by including subsistence peasants into exploitative
and environmentally damaging wage work (Lang ). is is
incompatible with degrowth visions, which seek to dignify and
recognise unpaid work and livelihoods based on non-commodied
economies, proving the need to change wage relations context-
sensitively.
Changing time regimes and redistributing care work
Another central strategy to redene, redistribute, and revalue care
aspires to dethrone wage work by freeing up time spent in wage work
that can then be devoted to all other forms of work. roughout
the
th
century, demands for a general reduction of working hours
often came up in the context of productivity gains or as short-term
economic policy in times of economic crises (Zwickl et al. ).
e degrowth proposal of work-sharing (WS) as “redistribution
of work between the employed and the unemployed” (Kallis et al.
, ) diers from this perspective as it aims to push back the
dominant role of wage labour as such. Implementing WS through
legislation is a symbiotic proposal that, by reducing everyone’s time
spent in wage work, allows all kinds of interstitial strategies to
ourish. Seemingly gender-neutral proposals like WS, however, can
have highly gendered eects. As Dengler and Strunk () argue, a
daily reduction of hours spent in wage work has more transformative
potential regarding the redistribution of unpaid care work than,
for example, the proposal to have “Fridays o” (Kallis et al. ).
Moreover, in order not to reproduce socio-economic inequalities,
WS requires full wage compensation for low-income earners or other
ways, by which wage work is decoupled from livelihood security
(Winker ).
Instead of only reducing time spent in wage work, Frigga Haug
() aspires to a radical and holistic (re-)distribution of socially
valuable work and to a transformation of the ways societies organise
themselves and interact with nature. Her “-in- perspective”
envisages that everyone engages four hours each in paid work
necessary to produce means for life, care work for humans and
more-than-humans, communal and political activities, and time for
leisure and self-development (Haug ). e realisation of -in- is
necessarily tied to a basic income, which, according to Haug (Ibid.),
would be universal, but not unconditional, as it relies on the social
obligation for each person to perform their share of every kind of
work, including care work. By claiming four hours/day for political
work, she emphasises the importance of political engagement “from
below” (Haug ) where everyone gets involved with shaping the
transformation of time regimes. Hence, the proposal for changing
economies of time is formulated as a revolutionary realpolitik that
starts from the status quo but has the potential to subvert diverse
power relations.
Re-organising societies around care
e strategies of changing wage relations and time regimes feed
into the major degrowth strategy to reorganise societies around
care, which requires democratic and collective care arrangements
beyond the dichotomy of money-mediated care work in the market/
state/non-prot sector on the one hand and unpaid care work in
heteronormative nuclear families on the other. Founded in ,
Care Revolution (CR) is a political strategy that aims at transforming
care as the basis for a society grounded in solidarity and, at the same
time, a social movement closely linked to a variety of care strikes in
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as a political network
with more than cooperation partners. Gabriele Winker’s ()
book Care Revolution: Schritte in eine solidarische Gesellschaft is
foundational for the Marxist feminist analysis behind CR. e vision
of a CR is sketched as a “radical democratic society oriented towards
human needs, ... in which the division between paid and unpaid
care work no longer applies” (Winker et al. , ). Whilst CR
applies a broad concept of care that respects planetary boundaries
(Winker ), it decidedly takes human life and needs as a starting
point. By acknowledging that some non-reformist reforms such
as a UBI or WS could pave the way towards a solidarity-based
care economy, CR oers a broader context for thriving interstitial
spaces of transformation. Local care councils, such as the Care-Rat
in Freiburg (Winker et al. ), are an example of how CR seeks
to democratise existing care infrastructures and strive towards a
collective reorganisation of care – a strategy that is closely linked to
discussions of commoning care.
Research on the commons has ourished over the last decades.
In contrast to debates that regard commons as a type of good/
resource, we consider commons as social relations and processes
of democratic self-government which enable the sharing of (re-)
production of life (Caentzis and Federici , Bollier and
Helfrich , Perkins ). Day-to-day caring activities and parts
of the health care sector can be organised beyond the market, state,
households, and non-prot organisations as Caring Commons
(CCs) (Akbulut , Gutiérrez Aguilar , Dengler and Lang
). Examples of the strategy to re-organise care work as commons
are the community-based health care system in the cooperative
Cecosesola in Barquisimeto, Venezuela (see the second half of this
chapter) and the Poliklinik in Hamburg Veddel, Germany, as well
as the Ollas Comunes (popular kitchens in Chile in the s),
commonised childcare, or co-housing projects for elderly people
in Spain today. ese examples are not primarily focused on the
common administration of goods, but on transforming and (re-)
building relations of care and conviviality in day-to-day life. CCs are,
as Silvia Federici (, ) reminds us, “an already present reality ...
and a perspective anticipating in an embryonic way a world beyond
capitalism.” In decidedly acknowledging the interdependence
of human and non-human forms of life, CCs can be read as an
interstitial strategy that, when scaled out, have transformative and
ruptural potential. Symbiotic strategies that aim at changing wage
relations and time regimes enhance the conditions of possibility for
such commoning practices and, more generally, a re-organisation of
care to thrive.
Conclusion: care for all
Strategies around care for a degrowth society adopt a non-
anthropocentric and non-binary perspective to build caring
relations with humans and more-than-humans, acknowledging
multiple interdependencies. Experiences and debates from the last
decades show that a redenition and reorganisation of work and a
restructuration of day-to-day activities have the potential to place
the ethics of care at the centre of social-ecological transformation,
thereby overcoming the asymmetries and injustices along the lines
of gender, class, race, and coloniality that currently characterise care
work. To move towards a feminist degrowth society, the dierent
strategic levels described by Wright and Fraser complement each
other. Symbiotic demands that push back wage work generate the
structural conditions of possibility for a broader transformation of
day-to-day relations, habits, and routines, where urban and rural
communities multiply caring commons according to their specic,
situated needs in a democratic, self-governed manner. In this
degrowth future, people of all genders dedicate part of their lifetime
to care work, thereby contributing to the necessary cultural change
to redene, redistribute, and revalue care.
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A case in the eld of care: the Health Centre
Cecosesola
By Georg Rath
Cecosesola is not a model, it is an inspiration. And what inspires most is
not just the fact that it has been working for so long, but the care with
which they do things dierently, they create something that is completely
mediated by the base.
– John Holloway, epilogue to Cecosesola (2012)
As probably the rst of its kind, our communitarian-cooperative
integral health centre Centro Integral de Salud (CICS) was opened
in the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto, in the North-Western
state of Lara, on June . is holistic health centre combines
conventional medicine and alternative therapies and oers
treatments and care to the city’s . million inhabitants. In addition
to general medicine, the cooperative health centre oers paediatrics,
gynaecology, natural birth, X-ray diagnostics, laboratory work,
Tai-Chi, music therapy, urology, orthopaedics, psychology, and
physiatry. As the heart of a healthcare network that also includes
six smaller facilities, this health centre is a self-organising and self-
nanced communitarian initiative whose services have been fully
maintained even in times of the pandemic. e fact that the CICS
is a cooperative makes it rather dierent from existing public or
private health centres. We are neither guided by the principle of
prot maximisation, which drives private clinics, nor by the logics
of public welfare that underlie state health policies. e services
are not only open to members of the cooperative, but to everyone
who hopes to receive support for their healing processes. For us,
the primary aim is to create a space for communal encounters in
health, which includes the possibility of transforming traditional
relationships shaped by hierarchies into democratic processes of
collective provisioning. is focus on democratic and collective
provisioning is, no doubt, a perspective that we share with the
degrowth movement.
e CICS is part of the Central Cooperativa de Servicios Sociales del
Estado Lara (Cecosesola), born in . A total of cooperatives
with about , members in and around Barquisimeto make up
the Cecosesola cooperative network. Many activities work in synergy,
such as the supply of food (especially fruit and vegetables at our
community markets), funeral services, and healthcare. Our health
network started in as a collective health fund for members.
Over the years, six decentralised locations for medical consultation
emerged in some of the cooperatives, until the CICS was built in
as the heartpiece of the network.
is network logic is what allows us to self-nance every new
activity, such as the sales of our eight market halls with an average of
, customers per week. ese are the backbone of the network,
which ensure the livelihoods of members who sustain the network
with their labour and engagement in rotative shifts. ey also
provide start-up funding for new projects like the construction of
the CICS, which cost approximately million USD. New activities
are supported through fundraising actions like food sales or t-shirt
campaigns and can receive temporary loans from other cooperatives
in the network. But the goal is to be nancially self-sucient, and
the CICS has achieved that for ve years now. is, and our capacity
to constantly adapt to changing circumstances through exible self-
government, have allowed us to be resilient even throughout the
huge economic crisis Venezuela has experienced in the last years
(Lander ).
It is characteristic of Cecosesola’s strategy that its initiatives
almost always arise from a communitarian, collectively felt necessity
of life. Originally, Cecosesola started out as a communal funeral
parlour in December . Since then, public transportation,
food, and health initiatives have emerged, all of which – except
the public transportation – are ongoing. Only three years after the
founding of Cecosesola, the question arose whether cooperatives
should generally oer services exclusively for their members (the
classic position represented and practised by most cooperatives and
commoning initiatives), or if we should make these services available
to the general public. After long discussions, we decided on the latter
and, since then, we have opened our services to everyone in need,
a decision that became ever more important for the organisation.
is also applied to our commitment to health, which was initially
limited to providing health care only for our members. As this
proved incompatible with our communitarian logic, we then
continually expanded our health services to the general public.
e cooperative-communitarian process of the CICS health centre
allows for treatment prices to be about half the price of other, non-
governmental health facilities. As the respective activities are seen
primarily as community engagement with the “side eect” of an
income opportunity (prices should cover material costs, there are
only small excess margins, and there are no specialised “top earners”),
some dominant market mechanisms are undermined. Prior to the
COVID- pandemic in , an annual average of , people
visited our health centre – a number that shows the scope of our
transformational aspirations.
Due to its cooperative-communitarian character, the CICS
management is a collective, too. A “medical director” only formally
appears when required by government authorities. Internally,
however, all management decisions are made based on consensus.
e self-organisation of the CICS primarily consists of plenary
discussions of all those members involved in a particular issue. ey
take place several times a week and can last several hours until all
pending questions have been (temporarily) claried. ese plenary
sessions neither have an agenda, nor a facilitator. Everyone can
contribute their opinion at any time. e quality of self-organisation
improves with collective experience. As in the upward movement of
a spiral, we get back to the same relational topics from time to time
but do so on a higher level of reection. is form of organisation
sometimes lacks the ability to respond quickly, but it also enables an
approach to health that meets everyone’s needs and expectations.
e integral approach of health in Cecosesola and its dimensions
For us, an integral approach goes beyond a combination of
individual services. It describes the synergy of dierent strategies
that do not result from a quantitative striving for growth, but from
a striving for a certain quality of relationships. Integrality for us
includes:
. Patients are at the centre of our approach and relationships
with everyone are carefully nourished. Appreciation, support,
and respect are key terms forming the relationship between
therapists and patients. ereby, those terms themselves
(therapist/patient) and the type of relationships they stand
for tend to be replaced while creating a subject-subject
relationship. is is part of the cultural transformation
in Cecosesola – a transformation that, based on everyday
experience, constantly reects and deconstructs utilitarian
relations which degrade the other into an object of one’s own
expectations, goals, ambitions, and emotions.
. A second axis is that consciousness, knowledge, and
feelings converge; people who want to work at CICS need
to understand that the team not only needs the necessary
expertise, but also a heart that is sensitive enough to serve sick
people with an attitude of mindfulness. Mindfulness is not
understood as an attitude of compassion towards the “poor
little you”, but as solidarity with one another in situations of
imbalance. We need people who are willing to become aware
of the civilisational patterns that impair humanity so deeply:
the pursuit of one’s own benet, the lack of altruism and the
unnecessary accumulation of goods, power, and knowledge as
a supposed safety belt of our existence. We cannot design an
integral health centre with the primary aim of earning money.
e real goal is to rebuild life out of a sick and sickening
situation.
. Integrality also refers to the aspect of community, which goes
beyond solidarity pricing. It is about turning the centre into a
space of encounter and community with neighbours, friends,
and residents of Barquisimeto’s districts, in which access to
health services is generally dicult. e community and its
rich and diverse experiences are part of our activities, and we are
part of the community if we only allow ourselves to see health
as an opportunity to learn and share knowledge, wisdom, and
experiences from within the community. In Spanish, the term
comunidad emphasises two essential components of community:
what we have in common and what we want to do together.
Based on our experience as a cooperative, we contribute tools
that improve organisational processes in the community. For
example, having solid principles while at the same time being
exible in terms of living these principles without dogmatism;
or building organisational processes that respect transparency,
honesty, and sharing based on solidarity.
. Another axis of the integral approach is directly related to
health: the axis of body, mind, and spirit, which is the axis
of healing. Healing has a broader and deeper meaning for us
rather than just making one healthy. It is about not regarding
the sick person (which we all are, to a certain degree) as an
“object to be healed”, as a number in a medical record, as a
“next one, please.” Healing processes understand illness as
a possibility and opportunity for the transformation of the
person, and our task in health is to help the person to decipher
the message that is contained in the complaints.
Neither public nor private, but cooperative and communitarian
e cooperative originates from a free and egalitarian agreement
between people who decide to form an organisation under cooperative
law, whose activities must be carried out for purposes of social interest
and collective benet, without privileging one or more of its members.
In practical terms, this implies that all people who educate themselves
– regardless of whether they work as doctors, nurses, dentists, cleaners,
or technicians – work as equals. ey do so in a team with collective
discipline in a self-governed manner, which supports creativity, the
creation of holistic wellbeing, solidarity, and a feeling of identity and
belonging. A rather practical consequence of this structure is that in
Cecosesola – except for a few doctors and technicians – all receive the
same remuneration for our communitarian-cooperative commitment.
e exceptions mentioned are the subject of collective discussions to
gradually create a balance of remuneration in the future.
However, none of this is a linear process. ere were many ups
and downs, or unexpected obstacles, caused by new state regulations
that needed to be overcome through negotiations or actions of civil
disobedience. For example, new tax regulations for cooperatives were
introduced in without any specic relation to Cecosesola, but
which translated into a huge threat to its nancial sustainability.
ere are also problems in everyday life, for example, due to deeply
rooted patriarchal structures that we carry along with us. Based on
our patriarchal, racist, hierarchical culture, it is no easy task to create
a process leading towards a culture of participation that transcends
relationships of domination. For instance, an area of tension that
continues to challenge us lies in the elitist self-conception of doctors,
who perceive themselves as superior based on their expertise, thereby
enacting power.
Venezuela has, from , been going through the most severe
economic and political crisis in its history (Lander ). Shortages
of all kinds of goods, including medical supplies, hyperination
(over one million in ), and strict state control of all economic
activities mark the context in which Cecosesola and the CICS
currently operate. e pandemic has further challenged our ability
to mature and reinvent ourselves, with a drastic quarantine that
includes a curfew in our city. Within the few hours the CICS is
currently allowed to open, we are hardly able to cope with the
approximately persons that visit us per day and sometimes
must resort to civil disobedience. As it has already happened quite
frequently in the history of Cecosesola, such challenges invite us
to deepen our communitarian engagement and to meet them with
collective creativity. For example, when patient numbers dropped in
the rst weeks of the pandemic, we invited doctors to work at the
grocery markets so they could maintain their income.
Our strategy neither aims at symbiotic laws or government policies
nor at a ruptural break. Abandoning the power relations that shape
our society is a shared, time-consuming process of interstitial
everyday learning that follows the principles of transparency,
responsibility, respect, and mutual help. In doing so, we are not
guided by a ready-made imperative of how everything should
turn out, but by a sincere desire to change ourselves in relation to
others. Transforming our relations in Cecosesola according to these
principles leads us to move away from the growth imperative, both
in what concerns production, distribution, and consumption as well
as the social imaginaries of endless personal needs. Importantly, we
do not consider ourselves as a closed collective, but, through the
means of all our cooperative activities, we interact with the people in
our city and regard every crossroads of our path as an invitation for
everyone to get involved.
References
Cecosesola. . Auf dem Weg – Gelebte Utopie einer Kooperative in Venezuela. Ber-
lin: Die Buchmacherei.
Lander, Edgardo. . “e Longterm Crisis. e Venezuelan Oil Rentier Model
and the Present Crisis the Country Faces.” Transnational Institute Longreads, Janu-
ary , . https://longreads.tni.org/longterm-crisis-venezuelan-oil-rentier-mod-
el-present-crisis-country-faces.
Chapter : Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector
By Halliki Kreinin and Tahir Latif
Introduction
Work forms a central component of social organisation and
welfare in growth-dependent societies, with adverse environmental
and social outcomes. e way work is structured today and the
division of labour lie at the crossroads of environmental crises
(climate breakdown, resource exploitation, biodiversity loss, food
distribution) and social crises (gender and income inequality, labour
exploitation, mental health) while work also conversely provides
people with meaning, income and identity. Although there is
agreement about the need to transform work amongst a variety
of actors on the political spectrum, what kinds of work should be
transformed, why, how, and who should do the transforming (as well
as what counts as work) remain a terrain of debate and struggle. is
is particularly true when one seeks to envision a degrowth society
where work will be substantially dierent from the way work is
currently organised.
In the following, we rst briey outline the interrelation of work
to the dierent crises, then we will elaborate on the directions in
which work could or should be transformed, as well as strategies
to get there. We argue that interstitial and symbiotic strategies can
work together and strengthen the potential for the transformation
of work, for example, through amplifying workers’ voices and
providing alternatives that undermine the logic of capitalist
economic production. While symbiotic transformation can be
critiqued as reformist, currently there is no realistic way out of the
conundrum of transforming capitalism in line with environmental
and social considerations without implementing reforms that
empower and broaden democracy. ese reforms, however, may
end up ameliorating and potentially reproducing existing capitalist
relations of production (McCabe ). In what follows, we
consider the combination of interstitial and symbiotic strategies
for the transformation of work – primarily through the activities of
labour unions. As the case study of the aviation sector workers will
show, interstitial and symbiotic strategies often work together –
momentum built up by interstitial transformation may eventually
result in symbiotic transformation.
How paid work is currently organised
It is not news that the way work is currently organised has detrimental
eects on the environment, as well as on society. Work and production
play a crucial role in perpetuating the growth-based economic system
– both as an input in production and as a consumption-causing
activity (Homann and Paulsen ). e need to secure full-time
paid employment in line with productivity growth is one of the
central mechanisms of the growth economy in the Global North, with
disastrous environmental consequences (Jackson and Victor ).
In the growth-dependent capitalist economy “coercion, rules,
ideology and material interests” interact in the terrain of work, thus
reproducing exploitation by tying society’s interests to the interests
of capital (and against nature); this renders exploitation in waged
labour economically and socially more desirable than unemployment
(Wright , ; ). In the Global South, the capitalist
drive for growth and production is powering the destruction of
subsistence communities and forced proletarianisation in the name
of development. Lower-income countries are locked into a system
of exploitation to supply cheap labour, materials, energy, and land,
reinforcing inequality and the advantaged position of the Global
North (Homann and Paulsen ).
On the other hand, work that is socially accepted as prestigious
and thus well paid often undermines or fails to contribute to social
provisioning and may even lack internal meaning on its own terms,
while also being environmentally or socially exploitative. According
to Graeber () more than half of the performed paid work in the
Global North are “bullshit jobs” – outwardly well-regarded and paid,
but often considered meaningless or not of social value, even by
those who hold those jobs themselves. “Batshit work” has been used
to refer to work that destroys the environment and human health
for short-term economic prot (Hansen ). Bullshit and batshit
jobs stand in contrast to the many unpaid (or low paid) activities
that form the foundation of provisioning, but which are devalued by
society – work historically performed largely by women (see Chapter
).
Although multiple social and environmental crises highlight
the urgent need for societies to transform work, the focus on
productivity as a goal, and the primacy of paid labour in material
provisioning, means that it is unlikely that paid work will disappear
as a form of social organisation in the near future (Barca ).
Within the individualist framework of capitalist society, a person’s
work is considered to provide the material basis for a good life and
– rightly or wrongly – denes meaning, community, and identity
(Fellner ). As a result, the transformation of current work
relations is made more dicult by the immediate material interests
of workers being tied to the continuation of the system. e
direct material pressures that enforce the work ethic, as well as the
growth imperative (see Chapter ) render policies such as working
time reduction, or limiting production for environmental reasons,
contested – subjugating ecological interests to economic interests.
Long working hours, unhealthy working conditions, and physically
damaging labour are not only environmentally harmful, but have
serious mental and physical health implications, both for the
employed and unemployed (such as social exclusion, loss of meaning
and identity) (Frayne , Weeks ).
Working time reduction, work-sharing, the provision of universal
basic services (or income), oer potential solutions to liberating
society from the worst aspects of waged work (Kallis , Schor
). As Barca () explains, much degrowth scholarship and
imaginary on work and its transformation have focused on this
“liberation from work” perspective; the next task for the degrowth
movement, she argues, is to also focus on the “liberation of work”
from the capitalist growth imperative and work discipline, as a
basis for alliances with other social struggles and an eco-socialist
transition. Rendering waged work environmentally and socially
sustainable (instead of exploitative and alienating) is a key element in
challenging the socio-economic orthodoxy of productivity and GDP
growth as supreme societal goals (Barca ).
It is workers who have intimate knowledge of the sites of
production, how production could be transformed, or where to exert
pressure to bring batshit production to a halt, thus workers are key
agents for the social-ecological transformation (Hansen , Pichler
et al. ). Work as an institution also helps to passively reproduce
exploitative social structures, making work the key terrain of strategic
action for change and human liberation (Wright , ).
In the following section, we will elaborate on the “liberation of
work” perspective, starting from the ground up as the basis for
strategic alliances that challenge the existing exploitative institutions
of work.
Towards the liberation of work: What do we mean by
transforming waged work?
When considering the potential for a transformation of work, we can
identify three main kinds of transformations:
. Changing the actual work that is done – this is the fundamental
underpinning for a transformation of work, from one activity
(environmentally destructive) to another (socially useful),
e.g., from fossil fuel production to renewable energy, from
plane and car to train and bus construction and maintenance,
underpinned by a guarantee of continued employment and of
any retraining required.
2. Changing the character of work – moving away from an ethos
of excessive measurement and continuous acceleration of
pace and expectation, and thereby eliminating bullshit/
batshit jobs, automating routine tasks where technologically
or ecologically feasible to release people for more fullling
work, proper and equal treatment in the workplace including
guaranteeing decent basic wages instead of performance-based
“incentivisation”.
3. Transitioning to a more democratic workplace – replacing
hierarchical structures with workplace democracy, using
workers’ knowledge as the basis of decision-making within
a sector, and actively promoting and progressing towards
alternative models of ownership (nationalised, local or
regional, community-based, worker-owned co-ops) and
democratic accountability.
e rst is the easiest to deal with – in theory, if not in practice – as
it describes the physical switching of production from one activity
to another. is could possibly be done without implementing the
other two kinds of transformation of work. However, such a change
in isolation would not be sucient to deliver the post-carbon society
that is needed for social-ecological transformation. Changes in
lifestyle, social organisation and workplace democracy are implicit in
any serious attempt to decarbonise work.
e other issue with changing the actual work that is done is
the resistance that would be (and is) encountered from vested
interests that prot from current activities. ere is no shortage of
evidence for the lengths to which some corporations go to protect
their interests, such as Shell’s or Chevron’s knowledge of climate
change in the early s, or the aviation industry’s greenwashing
regarding biofuels and technological developments (Franta ).
Governments are often deeply entwined in complex relationships
with these corporations, and consequently will either resist change
or do the minimum required. It is highly possible that they would
seek to implement climate policy through market principles. Such an
approach will likely deliver limited success – both in terms of social
and environmental outcomes. For these reasons, a transformation
that targets the form and purpose of work is essential, which would
replace simple proteering with broader social and environmental
goals from which all benet.
Strategies to liberate work
To transform work, the rst key task is to understand the
contradictions, limits and gaps in the system that reproduce the
hegemony of current economic and work relations, in order to
nd and open up spaces for truly transformative strategies (should
be (Wright , ). According to Wright’s typology, we now
consider dierent types of transformation in the eld of work –
interstitial, ruptural, and symbiotic.
Practices of interstitial transformation are important as lived
utopias, which increase social empowerment, extend the degrowth
imaginary and realms of possible action. Interstitial strategies oer
parallel solutions to transforming the institution of waged work.
Cooperative ways of organising production, consumption, and
distribution have long provided viable alternatives to capitalist or
centrally planned economies (Vieta ). Eco-villages and forms
of labour exchange through practices such as time-banking, provide
visions of a possible social organisation of tasks outside waged
labour that transcend current structures. However, there is a risk for
interstitial strategies to remain marginal or function simply as an
escape from the yoke of capitalist relations (Wright ). While an
important element showcasing how work can be transformed, on
their own these are unlikely to bring about changes on a societal level.
Similarly, it is dicult to consider ruptural transformations of
work on a societal scale. An emancipatory metamorphosis will
require some elements of rupture, as contesting the growth paradigm
and current institutions of waged labour will be a conictual
process. Ruptural strategies that make a complete or sharp break
with existing social and economic relations at this point in history
not only “seem implausible in the world in which we currently
live, at least in the developed capitalist economies” (Wright ,
), but are also likely to have unintended consequences (Wright
, ). With this in mind, possibilities for rupture (breaks with
the capitalist growth imperative) that are temporally or spatially
limited are both more desirable, and likely – even if still relatively
rare. ese localised and temporally limited ruptures can help bring
about interstitial transformations on a local scale (see Chapter
). Promising and successful local ruptures leading to interstitial
strategies of transformation in the recent past have included
workers taking over companies to transform production. ese
instances are most often related to nancial failure or the pressures
of globalisation, for example, the Argentinian tile factory FaSinPat,
the Greek soap factory Vio.me (see Chapter ), as well as the French
worker-recuperated tea company SCOP TI (Hansen , Neumann
, Vieta ). ese small-scale local ruptures have been most
eective in bringing about transformation when they have joined
up with other local ruptural projects and existing causes – including
civil society. Local civil society action and trade union support were
crucial in supporting SCOP TI during the . years of struggle
against Unilever, in the example of the French tea company.
Finally, symbiotic transformations through trade unions and
workers movements have been some of the largest and most
successful emancipatory forces in history, but which have also
regulated capitalism and helped it to evolve and survive (Wright
). e tension between large-scale change and co-optation in
symbiotic transformations is referred to throughout this book (e.g.,
Chapter and Chapter ).
Trade unions and the transformation of work
Workers constitute the fundamental element around which the
system hinges, while worker movements, including trade unions,
are crucial as vehicles for the transformation of work. Withholding
labour is the one action that brings everything to a halt. It is no
surprise that great eorts have been made in many countries to
strictly circumscribe the scope for industrial action, and to prevent
unionisation.
ere are examples of labour environmentalism and labour-
environmental coalitions – struggles for protecting workers’ and
communities’ livelihoods and the environment together, which
have used “old” methods of union action – such as negotiating
with employers for workplace improvements (recycling facilities,
renewable energy provision), or strike action (where serious health
and safety consequences are at stake) – to ght for environmentally
just outcomes (e.g., Räthzel, Cock, and Uzzell ). Dierent
unions in the same sector have acted both as “defenders of the status
quo” as well as “agents of green transition”: in aviation, for example,
described below, some unions support the expansion of ying to
increase jobs in the sector while others see this as an employment
dead end given that climate change will force a constraint on
ying at some point. ese dierences depend on both the specic
sectoral interests, the union’s internal identity, organisational
structure and coalition partners, as well as external factors such as
the political climate, governance and socio-economic contexts (Kalt
forthcoming).
Historically, workers’ movements have been at the forefront of
struggles for emancipation and the social forces capable of changing
work relations, including working time reduction, campaigning
for improved working conditions, mobilising member awareness
of working circumstances, and organising direct action and strikes
(McAlevey ). However, industrial action is a long way from
where most trade unions are today. e co-option of labour as the
fundamental driver of the treadmill of capitalism, particularly in
the last forty years, has meant that the tradition of radical labour
organising has been “beaten, jailed, and (depending on the country)
murdered out of the movement” – with the complicity of some
trade union leaders, who hoped that business unionism would mean
security for life (Ibid.).
Short-term economic necessity (exacerbated in an era of austerity
and precarious labour markets), as well as leadership self-interest,
have all combined to propel many unions towards relatively
conservative positions, such as support for the expansion of aviation
or the UK Conservative government’s nuclear programme (GMB
). In this context, trade unions at best make a case for workers
getting a greater share of the fruits of their labour. At worst, they
replicate the language and priorities of employers to maintain the
status quo.
Despite some successful ruptural strategies of taking over sites of
production, or of organising interstitial strategies (such as starting
a cooperative without taking over the site of production), in many
cases workers have been excluded from decision-making when plant
closures are negotiated. Where decisions were made to relocate
or close down production, there has often been little that workers
or their unions could do. Appeals to employers’ humanity have
had little eect; occasionally an economic case can be constructed
to persuade the employer to change strategy, but this is rare.
For example, unions at the Rolls-Royce manufacturing plant in
Barnoldswick (UK) were able to prevent the closure of the factory
and job losses by persuading management of the value in utilising
the highly skilled workforce for “emerging and green technologies”
– following the decision to transfer its historic jet engine work to
Singapore (Unite, ). Despite successes in, for example, the
SCOP TI French tea company, more often, such victories tend
to be temporary and limited, in spite of the potential perceived by
workers, as with the limited additional life granted to the Oshawa
General Motors plant that, for a short period, redirected part of the
workforce towards the manufacturing of masks. In these cases, the
temporary reprieve tends to be part of an uphill struggle for survival
(Leedham ).
Given the limited degree of success from such eorts, proposals
to transform and recontextualise work, therefore, have to not only
challenge the existing hierarchies of power, but also often sceptical
workers and their representatives. is is clearly demonstrated by
the antipathy, if not outright hostility, exhibited by many workers
towards the concept of Just Transition (Cohen , Kalt ). e
transformation of work, including transition out of environmentally
harmful work, is not a smooth process but “shaped and obstructed
through conicts,” where in some regions environmentalists and
unions are pitted against each other in a discursive battle of claims to
“justice”, to the benet of the fossil fuel industry (Kalt , ).
Workers and their union leaders commonly perceive a Just
Transition as a threat to livelihood that needs to be opposed, or a
threat to the commonly accepted social “good life” as a lifestyle with
high individual consumption (GMB , Keil and Kreinin ).
is is the case even in instances where those same workers are facing
threats to their jobs, pay and conditions from the very employer they
are aiming to align with, and against whom they are taking industrial
action. For example, despite the action taken by workers against the
“re and re-hire” tactics undertaken in the face of the COVID-
pandemic by British Gas and British Airways, the unions concerned
remain committed to the expansion of those industries in spite of
their own advocacy of green policies (Robson ).
Transforming work in practice
A combination of interstitial strategies (showing the possibility
of organising work dierently) and symbiotic strategies (bringing
about wide-reaching change in the organisation of work through
collaboration with existing institutions at the local level), will be
of crucial importance in the social-ecological transformation of
work. Governments cannot be relied on to enact appropriate policy
unless prompted to do so from below (see Chapter ). In fact, it
was just such pressure from workers’ movements in the s that
compelled Roosevelt to enact the New Deal. Today, the situation
is more complex, with networks of global interconnectedness,
which suggests that such forces have to emerge in a wide range of
local circumstances. is is why cooperation between workers
and environmental movements is a key strategy when aiming to
transform work.
Plans to improve local or regional economies can be collaboratively
developed by local authorities, trade unions and community groups,
with a view to solving specic localised problems and redirecting
the workforce towards those solutions. One such plan is the Green
New Deal for Gatwick, as described in the following section on
aviation, which has generated signicant support among workers,
communities, and local authorities representing the region. is is
because the direct benets of taking the steps proposed can be seen,
including workers themselves who can recognise in their everyday
reality where the current shortfalls in social and public services
are. Against the work ethic, environmental justice claims must be
formulated in a way that considers workers’ interests, contextualising
the environmental crisis within local settings, to help overcome the
logic of short-term economic rationality, and strengthen long-term
social-ecological rationality.
In terms of climate justice, this recognition of local circumstances
can manifest through an identication of the work required to, say,
generate energy locally to satisfy people’s needs, transform local
transport systems, and retrot homes. In broader terms, it means
addressing the shortfalls in public service that have been allowed to
develop over the last four decades of neoliberal capitalism as a result
of privatisation and commercialisation – restoring decent health
facilities, care for the elderly and children, education, and so on.
Importantly, developing plans in this way lends itself to communal
ownership, by citizens and/or the workforce, and a place for workers
in making the decisions that impact their working lives (Wol ).
In bypassing central government through local action, such
localised plans build pressure for a response at the national level. is
is important in order to provide the joined-up thinking required to
guarantee the provision of high-quality public services and carbon-
free industries, to legislate and regulate in the interest of workers
and alternative ownership models, and to run those aspects of the
economy that naturally require national coordination.
Just Transition in the aviation sector
e need for aviation to evolve from its current model of indenite
expansion given the challenge of climate change provides an example
of the way in which degrowth implies the potential transformation
of work.
Aviation is among the fastest-growing contributors to global
carbon emissions. Pre-COVID- industry growth aspirations
would have seen a increase in emissions from air trac
by (ICAO ). At the same time, aviation is also one of
the most ecient mechanisms for the reproduction of global
inequalities. Research commissioned by the climate charity Possible
has demonstrated, rst in the UK (Devlin and Bernick ), then
subsequently for several other industrialised countries (Hopkinson
and Cairns ), that around - of the population of those
countries take – of the ights, while about do not y
at all in any given year. It has also been shown that just of the
world’s people cause half of the global aviation emissions, while
have never set foot on an aeroplane (Stay Grounded and PCS ).
Taken together, the level of emissions and the identication of those
responsible clearly shows a sector that exemplies global inequality
and the privilege of the few.
National plans are currently not enough to achieve the Paris
Agreement target of staying within the .°C limit. Technological
solutions and alternative fuel sources are being developed but are
decades away from implementation and would be insucient to
achieve the reduction in emissions required in any meaningful time
and scale – leaving only the reduction of overall levels of ying as the
solution (Stay Grounded ).
Presently, the more growth there is in aviation, the more workers
are required; more pilots, cabin crew, baggage handlers, air trac
controllers, security and associated roles. Aviation is a highly
liberalised and deregulated industry where the service providers
(airlines and airports) are rigorous in the pursuit of prots. is
means that if trac levels remained stable, the imperative to achieve
eciencies would result in a decline in the number of workers due to
automation and improved processes. Workers and their unions are
aware of this and, to protect job security, are largely supportive of
the expansion of the industry, paradoxically aligning with employers
who are attacking their jobs and terms and conditions. As a result,
aviation workers are suspicious about proposals for a Just Transition
into other forms of employment, for the reasons discussed above.
e advent of the COVID- pandemic has brought these workers
and unions some recognition of the need for a Just Transition
accompanied by the demand for a government-backed jobs
guarantee (Chapman and Wheatley ) but they are unlikely to
fully support such proposals until that guarantee becomes ocial
government policy.
Leaving aside the practical barriers, the conversion of the industry
would require a very dierent workforce, on three counts:
. e transfer of workers into other, sustainable modes of
transport (predominantly rail) as these come to replace ying.
. e transfer of workers into other, socially useful and less
environmentally harmful sectors (e.g., ight attendants to the
care sector).
. e development of new skills and adaptation of existing skills
for the green transition of the remaining aviation sector (e.g.,
for dierent infrastructure and possibly new fuels).
ese changes constitute the rst of the three categories noted
previously – changing the work that is actually done. In terms of
changing the character of work, an ethos of public service rather than
private prot would provide a dierent motivation for workers,
with an emphasis on safety, security and good practice rather than
speed and quantity of trac. If unlimited expansion is legally
rendered impossible, the growth-based dominant metrics would no
longer apply. As with replacing GDP with some broader measure
of social satisfaction, the success or failure of aviation could be
recontextualised within its role as part of an integrated transport
system and the service it provides to people in satisfying human
needs within the planetary boundaries.
As for changing to a democratic workplace, this might be more
contentious but also crucial. In theory, aviation could achieve
the rst two aims while retaining its internal hierarchies and
mode of organisation. However, limiting the amount of ying
is contradictory to the success criteria of capitalist enterprises.
A dierent ownership model would be necessary if aviation
formed part of an integrated transport system rather than being
in competition with other modes of transport. As a eld that
utilises a range of highly skilled labour, in order to fundamentally
transform the industry, it may be appropriate that workers be able
to participate in decisions regarding the future of the industry,
or even be part of the ownership structure. In fact, such proposals
were advanced by the Lucas Aerospace workers in the UK as part
of their plan for worker-directed socially useful production in the
s (Wainwright and Elliott ), and were actively considered
by the Corbyn-led Labour party in the s. As such, the basis
upon which work is predicated could be removed from its current
limitations and motivations.
No such actions are being considered by national governments
despite a stated commitment to climate targets. In their absence,
local and regional development plans for job creation, driven by
a pandemic-induced decline in aviation and based around the
real needs of local communities, are emerging. e Public and
Commercial Services union (PCS) in the UK seeks to reconcile
opposition to aviation expansion with the need to defend jobs, and
has worked with the think tank Greenhouse and the campaign group
Green New Deal UK to develop an alternative employment plan,
following the massive job cuts at Gatwick airport post-pandemic
(Latif et al. ). eir report sought to identify the jobs that would
be required in the region around the airport to both provide much-
needed social and public services impacted by years of privatisation
(primarily in care, but also in health and education services) and
to provide an eective local response to climate change (in energy
provision, upgrade of buildings and public transport). It estimated
that over , jobs could be created to full these needs at a cost
of less than half of the annual tax break the government provides
to Gatwick airport, identied skill sets among the former airport
employees that might be conducive to a transition to these jobs (e.g.,
cabin crew to care services) and the training requirements to qualify
workers for activities such as retrotting homes.
e Gatwick Green New Deal plan is gaining signicant traction
among not only local communities but their representatives in local
councils and Members of Parliament for the area in a way that the
more abstract general demands have not been able to. In this sense,
we are seeing interstitial strategies at play that have the potential to
combine to bring about symbiotic transformation of the aviation
industry. ese actors are making the links between the report’s
ndings and their everyday lived experiences in the communities
around the airport. As a consequence, campaigners against expansion
at Heathrow and Leeds Bradford airports are actively developing
similar alternative employment proposals, with input and support
from the collaborators on the Gatwick report. Other single-industry
dependent communities such as the Suolk towns around the
Sizewell nuclear plant, the proposed re-opening of a coal mine in
West Cumbria, and opposition to the building of an incinerator in
Edmonton, North London, are building links with these anti-airport
expansion groups, recognising a commonality of interest and the
need to propose active alternatives. As such localised plans become
more numerous, the likelihood is that they will merge into a large-
scale movement demanding the transformation of work – and,
potentially, ownership – needed to meet the societal challenges and,
in the process, they demonstrate the bottom-up source of radical
change.
Conclusion
In this chapter, we have reected on the strategies and possibilities
for the social-ecological transformation of work. Yet, realistic
discussions about transforming work present a challenge. Examining
the potential for such transformation through the lens of interstitial,
ruptural and symbiotic modes of transformation suggests that it is
most likely to emerge from a combination, and interaction, of these
rather than being conned to a single approach, with a combination
of interstitial and symbiotic approaches appearing the most
promising. While the successes of labour organising via trade unions
have largely been conned to addressing workers’ immediate needs
(food, shelter etc.), the centrality of work to meeting the fundamental
needs of society means that workers’ movements, such as unions,
provide the most likely basis for successful society-wide struggle. e
example of the aviation sector shows the uphill battle of generating
radical change, but also points towards joint environmental-union
action and co-mobilisation providing the potential for displacing the
segmented organisation of work with a more coordinated and social-
ecologically viable approach, society-wide. is can be considered
to be part of an interstitial transformation activating symbiotic
transformation on a dierent scale. Such an approach could open up
a number of possibilities, including replacing the prot motive, GDP
and growth, with well-being as the primary measure of success, to
enhancing workplace democracy, and enhancing worker participation
in implementing a socially just Green New Deal, which could alter
the basis upon which work is carried out.
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Chapter : Money and nance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of money and nance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider
42
Introduction
In most contemporary economies, production and consumption
occur through the means of money. ese economies are therefore
also market economies: what is produced is to be sold to acquire the
money that makes it possible to buy goods and services produced
by others. e use of money expresses the agents’ participation
in the market economy, including its division of labour, but also
allows market and non-market productions (e.g., public services) to
cohabitate (éret , Aglietta ). Money thereby ties together
producers and consumers through interconnected balance sheets.
ese monetary relations are debt relations. Indeed, any payment
is a debt settlement (Aglietta et al. ), not only reimbursements
of formal debts. For instance, when one buys bread, the buyer is
indebted until they give the money to the baker. Paying for the bread
settles the debt. erefore, strategies for achieving degrowth have
to acknowledge that money and monetary practices are, rst and
foremost, a social institution to evaluate and settle debts between
parties whose value rests on trust. Trust in money is enforced by
public authorities. Money is therefore fundamentally a public good
and needs to be understood as such. Money is also pervasive in
growth-based societies – it appears almost impossible to imagine a
42 All authors contributed equally.
world without this social relation (Project Society after Money ).
In capitalism, the ever-expanding market sphere triggers
commodication processes and thus extends the realm of what
can be purchased with money. e nancial system plays an
instrumental role in the commodication of everything. is is a key
issue for degrowth. Strategies are therefore needed to forestall these
developments. Our chapter will review strategies to democratise,
denancialise, demonetise, decommodify, defossilise, and
repurpose money with the aim of restructuring economic processes.
Acknowledging that money is a social relation enables one to reect
upon possible strategies to achieve degrowth through monetary
regulations or repurposing money’s use.
With that aim in mind, we outline three broad strategies. We
explain various measures necessary to implement the strategies
(with ten measures in total) and discuss their symbiotic, interstitial
or ruptural nature. We then introduce the Austrian Cooperative
for the Common Good (Genossenschaft für Gemeinwohl) as an
example of a symbiotic strategy. We conclude by discussing to what
extent dierent interstitial and symbiotic strategies, considered in
combination, can produce ruptural eects.
Democratising money
Despite the fact that money is a public good, control over monetary
ows is largely privatised. To enable a transformation towards a
degrowth society, money as a public good needs to be manifested in
institutions and norms that shape its use. In that vein, democratising
control of monetary institutions is a critical strategy. A broader
understanding of democracy, to include the realm of the economy as
well as politics, must include monetary democracy; meaning (direct)
democratic control over institutions that shape the creation, ows
and use of money.
Democratising money is organised in this text along two levels:
democratising how money is created through public banking
and
democratising how public money is spent through direct citizens’
control over municipal budgets.
Public banking
Reforming banking is, critically, about strengthening monetary
democracy and empowering the local in relation to the national, and
the public in relation to the private. A social contract exists between
governments and banks, whereby central banks guarantee at-par
convertibility of bank deposits into settlement reserves (Chick ,
Gabor and Vestergaard ). Indeed, “one of the most important
and oft-forgotten truths about any banking system is that it simply
cannot exist without the government” (Baradaran , ). Despite
this fact, banking regulation occurs independently of democratic
accountability and oversight. Importantly, when the banking system
falters, the public collectively bears responsibility.
Claiming public control over money creation through public
banks can serve to democratise and re-embed the monetary system
in local economies. It can ensure that public responsibility for the
banking system is matched by public benet (Mellor ). is
would enable the creation and use of money for public purposes.
Historically, public banks have supported small businesses, the
upgrading of public infrastructure and aordable housing, and
changes to food and transportation systems. For example, the Bank
of North Dakota is a state-owned public bank established in the
U.S. in . All of the state’s revenues are deposited into the bank
by law, and municipal government deposits go to local community
banks. Whereas other states rent money from private banks at great
cost, North Dakota is able to borrow at zero interest, and thus fund
projects without raising taxes or taking on debt. e prots of the
bank belong to citizens. Practices focusing on small and medium-
sized enterprises and “main street banking” have resulted in North
43 While not addressed in this chapter, democratising central banks is also an important
strategy, see Cahen-Fourot (2022) for further discussion.
Dakota having the lowest foreclosure rate, lowest credit card default
rate, and lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. (Harkinson ,
Marois and Güngen ). Recently there has been renewed interest
in public banking in the United States. In , backed by grassroots
advocacy groups, a bill was passed in California to legalise and
support public banks (California ).
A (supra)national framework could ensure environmental and
social banking guidelines while empowering and prioritising local
decision-making. For example, the United Kingdom’s Labour
Party proposed a tiered system of local, regional and national
public banks, under public ownership and with a democratic
control structure, to embed institutions in the community they
serve (Berry and Macfarlane ). Rather than a mandate
focused upon prot, public banks can be mandated to serve social
and environmental goals, with a focus on meeting the needs
of disenfranchised communities and peoples. e Cooperative
for the Common Good follows this principle in its cooperation
with banks. For instance, banks commit to granting loans in the
amount of all deposits in common good accounts exclusively to
sustainable, regional projects. Public good oriented banking can be
aided by a “public taxonomy” with preferential lending conditions
for investments such as aordable and sustainable housing, care-
sites, sustainable local food production, worker-owned companies
and public transit infrastructure. ese preferential conditions
may include lower interest rate payments, no collateralisation and
longer maturities of loans while prohibiting speculation and “dirty
investments.” Strengthening public banking is an important element
for transformation. at said, a clear mandate and appropriate
regulatory guidelines are necessary to mitigate the governance
failures that have, for example, aected the German public banking
system (Behr and Schmidt , Scherrer ).
Another step towards banking serving the public good is the
creation and support of privately-owned banks that serve the public
interest. Such “ethical banks” are usually established as institutions
that allow for broad participation from shareholders or members,
and also employees, and have been initiated mostly by citizen-led
movements. e Italian Banking Act of
marks an important
milestone in regulating ethical and sustainable banking and nancial
services and establishing a legal dierentiation between for-prot
and public interest banks. e law denes criteria for ethical and
sustainable nancial institutions, such as ethical credit assessment,
transparent investment policy, no-distribution of prots to owners,
and a participation-friendly organisational and governance model.
It would be benecial for such criteria to be established at the
European Union level.
People’s budgets and citizens’ councils
People’s budgets and citizens’ councils are means to expand
democracy into the determination of ows of money, and to
operationalise money as a public good. People’s budgets – also called
participatory budgets and public budgets – are ongoing initiatives
to democratise public money. In this case, democratic deliberation
and decision-making processes are used to decide upon municipal
budgets. Government budgets are understood as public money, and
municipal budget allocation is seen as a reection and declaration of
local values (Congressional Progressive Caucus ). Such decision
processes can be inclusive of low-income, minority, non-citizen
and youth residents. ey have the ability to fund community-led
solutions and care-based solutions, focusing on, inter alia, child
and elder care, common spaces for non-market-based leisure and
recreation activities, and “greening” infrastructure, while moving
away from supporting the police-prison nexus.
Participatory budgeting was rst realised in the city of Porto
Alegre, Brazil in , involving over , citizens through
neighbourhood assemblies, thematic assemblies, and city-wide
delegates. Marginalised communities were at the heart of decision-
making processes that they had previously been excluded from, with
44 Legislatura 17ª – Disegno di legge n. 2611
redistributive eects (Abers et al. ). More recently, residents of a
number of cities throughout the United States have worked through
the Black Lives Matter movement to enact people’s budgets to shift
municipal spending away from policing and towards community-
based care measures. In , advocacy groups won over m
in direct cuts from US police departments and at least m
investments in community services and alternatives to incarceration
through budget votes (Interrupting Criminalization ). It is
important to note that this approach is limited by the extent to
which policy can be inuenced at the local level.
While people’s budgets address public control of funds, this can be
complemented by citizens’ councils, which facilitate public control
over banking and nancial regulation, as well as broader decisions
around socio-economic goals (see Chapter ).
e transformative nature of democratising money
e strategies outlined here for democratising money creation and
the spending of money are largely symbiotic strategies. e measures
of people’s budgets and citizens’ councils both rely on the existing
government apparatus and political gures to implement the
will of the councils, and thus, aim at reducing harms by “taming“
capitalism. Depending on how a people’s budget is enacted, it is
potentially an interstitial strategy as well – for example, through
directing public funds to create common and non-marketed spaces
and processes to meet local needs. Public banking has the potential
to be both a symbiotic and an interstitial strategy. As banks are
established and enacted through government regulation, they rely
on juridical and regulatory conditions. However, a broad system of
public banking has the potential to form a counter-power to global
nance and to the private accumulation of capital, and in this way
can be a part of a more radical strategy for degrowth.
Denancialisation of the economy
Financialisation of the economy refers to a dual process: the rise of
the nancial industry and associated sectors (e.g., the FIRE sectors:
Finance, Insurance and Real Estate), and the rise of nancial
motives in the management of non-nancial corporations (Krippner
, Lazonick and O’Sullivan ). is process thoroughly
transformed capitalism from the s onwards. In high-income
countries a major change has been the decrease of workers’ share in
aggregate income and the increase of capital’s income share (Kohler
et al. ).
Financialisation contradicts degrowth in at least two ways.
First, the search for short-term nancial returns and the primacy
of liquidity is contradictory to long-term planning, nancial
stability, and the alignment of the economy with environmental
sustainability and social well-being. Shareholders’ expectations of
returns on investment are disconnected from the economic reality
(e.g., a return on investment when the economy grows at less
than per year). Also, the desire to retrieve liquidities in the short
run will push rms to prioritise nancial protability over long-
term investment and innovation. is can impede reorganising
production to meet social needs and the principles of sustainability.
Second, nancialisation furthers the commodication of everything.
For instance, the environment becomes subject to nancial capital
accumulation: the atmosphere, ecosystem services and natural events
(e.g., storms), are cut into quantiable pieces and abstracted into
nancial assets (for instance, derivatives to insure against weather
events). ese assets negate the complexity of natural processes
and create an incentive to maximise the income generated by them
(Kemp-Benedict and Kartha, ), thereby paving the way for
further exploitation.
is section reviews strategies for denancialising the economy
and for halting ongoing processes that subject everyday life to
nancial logics. It explores how these processes can instead come to
serve societal goals of environmental, social and economic relevance.
Denancialising the economy requires several steps that can be
taken together or separately in three main areas: nancial markets
and the nance industry; state nancing; practices in the non-
nancial economy.
In the nancial sphere, denancialisation requires returning to an
era in which nance is controlled, with extremely tight regulation
and renewed control over nancial institutions (see section
above). All privately owned banks and institutional investors would
be small enough to fail – meaning they would be small enough
so that they would not need to be bailed out with public money.
Further, regulations could aim to reduce the complexity of nancial
markets and ban nancial products whose immediate purpose for
real economies cannot be identied. In contrast, ethical, regional,
and public good-oriented banks could be promoted and allowed
to operate under less stringent conditions than private, for-prot
nancial institutions (Benedikter , Weber ). Systematic
assessments based on social, ecological and ethical criteria would be
mandatory for every loan granted. Analogously, nancial products
of any kind would undergo a legally regulated approval procedure
according to these criteria (Epstein and Crotty ).
State nancing would also be taken away from global nancial
markets. Public bond issuance is critical for the nancial industry,
as it provides the risk-free asset the nancial industry needs to
run nancial valuation models and diversify their portfolios.
Transparency on who holds public bonds and policies to redirect
public bonds to domestic individual households would reduce
the supply of risk-free assets to nancial markets and emancipate
governments from the political inuence of global nancial
corporations. Alternatively, nancing scal spending without issuing
government bonds could limit the capacity for public debt to be
used as a speculative nancial asset (Lerner , Mitchell ).
Last but not least, denancialising the economy also requires
changing practices in the non-nancial economy. e legal denition
of a private rm would be revised to include social wellbeing and
sustainability concerns, in order to foster rms’ production and
management according to economic, social and environmental
criteria. However, this alone would be insucient as it would
create contradictions between the legal object of a rm and the
expectations of shareholders. erefore, the ownership structure
of rms needs to be adjusted to ensure that social provisioning
is aligned with social wellbeing and sustainability. Alternative
ownership structures, such as cooperatives and co-management
practices between shareholders and workers, should be encouraged to
reform rms’ management, increase economic democracy, and foster
long-term goals. is kind of ownership and management already
exists in many countries in cooperative rms of various sizes and
keeps them away from nancial markets and purely nancial logics.
Denancialisation of everyday life through decommodication
e nancialisation of everyday life (van der Zwan ) is about
how nancial aspects of individual life, such as insuring against
an uncertain future, increasingly become organised via nancial
markets. is nancialisation is fostered by the retreat of the state
from key sectors providing basic social needs.
For instance, pensions are being increasingly nancialised through
the rise of funded pension systems (nancial market-based pension
systems). ese subject future pensions to the dynamics of nancial
markets. ese pension systems are based on a promise of future
production that leaves no space for political compromise. Indeed,
any degrowth of production would leave stranded a signicant
part of the real assets underlying the nancial assets (Cahen-Fourot
et al. ). Stranded real assets would lose their value. is would
signicantly reduce the claim attached to nancial assets and thus
decrease the value of the pensions.
In contrast, pay-as-you-go pension systems are based on a political
compromise about the share of current production devoted to
nancing current pensions: the share of GDP devoted to funding
pensions is decided politically in discussions about how to fund
and allocate public budgets (Barr and Diamond , Husson
). is compromise can be revised and adapted in line with
the reorganisation of the production and distribution of essential
goods and services. In a pay-as-you-go system, the share of the
aggregate income devoted to funding current pensions could be
debated and set to t with a degrowth economy while ensuring
decent pensions.
In other words, in a pay-as-you-go pension system
current production and negotiated social contributions determine
current pensions; in a capitalisation-based pension system future
pensions determine future production. is essential dierence
makes pay-as-you-go systems compatible with a degrowth economy
and capitalisation-based systems most likely incompatible.
For degrowth to be a liveable option, it is therefore crucial to
denancialise everyday life. is will require the socialisation
of sectors fullling basic social needs such as health, education,
housing, food, transport, energy and insurance against life risks
such as unemployment and old age. In other words, denancialising
everyday life requires separating the ability to take part in social life
from the ability to take part in labour and nancial markets.
Obtaining control over international nance
International trade and currency exchange rates are subject to,
and regulated in, the interest of nance-led capital accumulation.
Two implications of this are discussed here. First, the current
international monetary system limits the sovereignty of nation-
states over budget decisions. International institutions such as the
IMF and the World Bank condition access to loans for emerging
45 is would certainly be a contentious political issue, but two things must be considered.
First, many needs would be decommodied and would not, therefore, require money to be
satised. Certain monetary losses in pensions could then be compensated by increased in-
kind social provisioning. Second, increased rates of social contributions could compensate
for the lower aggregate income upon which pensions are levied to maintain their level.
is latter case corresponds to a new social compromise about an increased share of GDP
devoted to pensions.
market economies (EMEs) using austerity-based policies (Chang
). Allowing EMEs greater levels of monetary sovereignty, for
example by issuing loans in sovereign currency and allowing the
implementation of capital controls, would empower self-directed
development. is is addressed further in this chapter’s sub-sections
on complementary currencies. Second, the current system reinforces
post-colonial hierarchies in international trade. International ows of
capital, along with ows of natural resources, move from the Global
South to the Global North, advantaging the historically colonial
nations at the expense of those that have been (or still are) colonies
(Dorninger et al. , Svartzman and Althouse ).
Hence, international reforms of monetary ows must restrict
the possibility of currency exchange as a tool for speculation. An
international clearing union (ICU), as was proposed by Keynes
(), could accomplish this by equalising the burden between
debtor and creditor nations. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) for
the IMF could be more broadly used to promote anti-cyclical
international liquidity, rather than heavily relying upon the US
dollar for this purpose. SDRs could also be used for the payment of
reparations to the Global South. More to the point, a debt jubilee in
which multilateral institutions, including the IMF and World Bank,
permanently cancel principal and interest on all payments owed by
debtor nations would be a step towards equity. is would remove
the debt-extractivism nexus in low- and middle-income countries.
Of course, this can also strengthen economic growth in the
respective countries, as additional funds would be available to invest
and grow the economy. However, this need not be problematic per se
if it reects the development of the necessary provision of goods and
services such as health, education, social security and so on.
e transformative nature of the denancialisation strategy
Measures aimed at denancialisation are rather symbiotic: all of
them could be implemented in the current socio-economic system.
All of these measures would also stabilise existing capitalism
and make it more liveable for the many. In that sense, their
transformative potential may appear weak.
However, these measures also contradict some of the key capitalist
logics, such as commodication, the innite spread of the market
sphere, and the quest for short-run nancial returns. Further,
measures such as socialising key sectors and fostering workers’ direct
ownership of rms and decision power in rm management would
constitute radical changes if implemented at the whole economy
scale.
Redirecting and repurposing
In monetary economies, the purpose of money, i.e., what it
is used for and what is nanced by its use, is barely subject to
political debate, despite its impact on the economy. Money’s use
and investment decisions are left to private actors that decide, for
instance, on how much should be invested and for which purpose.
Degrowth can target the way in which money is used by pushing for
divestment, fossil-free monetary policy and nancial regulation, or
by fostering special-purpose moneys.
Divesting from fossil fuel-related activities
Fossil-free nance means removing companies directly or indirectly
involved in the use or extraction of fossil fuels from nancial
ows. It is far from a trivial move: fossil fuels became the principal
energy source in industrialised societies in the early
th
century
and still account for of primary energy consumption and
of electricity generation worldwide ( gures from BP Energy
Review ).
is can be achieved in several ways. First, actions of civil
disobedience and climate activism are already driving divestment
campaigns globally (Healy and Barry ). is is an important
movement as it signals growing social demand for exiting the fossil
economy and highlights the issue of continued reliance on fossil
fuels. However, as divesting means selling any nancial asset linked
to fossil fuel companies, this requires a counterpart to buy those
assets. erefore, the real eect on fossil fuel-related nancial assets’
liquidity – and ultimately on the ability of these companies to
nance their activities – is unclear.
Defossilising monetary policy and nancial regulation
e second way to remove nancing options for fossil fuel
companies is to act at the level of monetary policy and nancial
regulation. Monetary policy is the set of instruments central banks
use to ensure the correct functioning of the payment system.
Financial regulation concerns all the rules the nancial system must
abide by – in particular concerning nancial risks.
One key idea is to reform the eligibility rules for asset purchasing
programmes by central banks (such as quantitative easing) to exclude
fossil fuels and carbon-intensive activities. Other possibilities include
dierentiating between interest rates depending on the nature of
the activity to be nanced, implementing credit controls to direct
nancial ows in sectors deemed sustainable, and including green-
supporting and dirty-penalising factors in risk assessment in order
to foster nancing of sustainable activities. A major unresolved
challenge is to come up with a clear and operational denition of
what are “green” and “dirty” activities. Many proposals exist to
remedy the carbon impact of monetary policy (see e.g., Cahen-
Fourot ; Campiglio ; Dafermos et al. ), and several
central banks in the world have already implemented such measures
(Barmes and Livingstone , Dikau and Volz , D’Orazio and
Popoyan ).
Repurposing money: from general to special-purpose money
Current monetary economies are based on general-purpose money
– money that can be used for any legal purpose and that unites
all functions of money into one form of money (Saiag ). As a
consequence, general-purpose forms of money make all goods
and services commensurable (O’Neill ) and reduce political
control over economies. is could be overcome by implementing
or strengthening special-purpose moneys. ese have a denitive
standard of value, and can only be used for particular goods and
services or in a particular sphere of society (Saiag ). Further,
they can be under community or public control (Blanc ) and
complement or replace general-purpose money.
Special purpose currencies under community control are often
referred to as Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS).
Depending on the number of stores and active users, the durability
and signicance of the currencies vary widely. One reason is that
there may be no need to adopt the currency since the general-
purpose currency remains a more attractive alternative. As a
consequence, the circulation of the respective currency then slows
down, limiting its relevance and impact on economic development.
Special purpose currencies can also be issued by state authorities
in many forms. One form is vouchers that can be used only for
specic goods and services by a given person (Bohnenberger ).
A well-known (and often criticised) example are food stamps, a
form of voucher issued by certain authorities that can be used
to buy food. Depending on the way eligibility is designed and
how they are used, they may be discriminatory and worsen the
situation of already-discriminated groups. However, vouchers
can also be distributed on a universal basis and strengthen certain
economic spheres. For instance, in Vienna, during the COVID-
pandemic, the local authorities issued a restaurant voucher (Gastro
Gutschein) to all citizens, which could be used to purchase food in
local restaurants. Alternately, public authorities could issue special
purpose money to local associations that can only be used in stores
of the respective village, as in the case of Langenegger Talenten
46
in
the Austrian province of Vorarlberg. Such quasi-currency vouchers
ensure the sustainability of basic local economic infrastructure since
the associations use public subsidies in local stores. Since Langenegger
46 Unlike vouchers, the latter can be traded and any owner can use the Langenegger
Talenten, i.e., eligibility is not limited to a particular person.
Talenten is issued by a public authority, its circulation is not
dependent on voluntary adoption.
e most comprehensive proposal for state-issued complementary
currencies has been made by Hornborg (). He suggests
implementing a regional currency, through a universal basic
income, as a complement to general-purpose money. e purpose
of the currency is to strengthen local economies, relocalise economic
production chains and ultimately gain democratic control over
economic processes. is SPM is valid only for goods and services
produced within a certain distance from the place of purchase and
distributed to everyone that is living within a particular territory.
Authorities that are managing this complementary currency could
regulate its use through its exchange rate with the national currency.
Further, depending on the particular design, the currency can be
used only for goods, services, land, wages, or all of them. Overall,
the currency would facilitate local economic development, align
production with locally available goods, and, if needed, foster the
development of local production. Localising production potentially
increases democratic control over the production process, since cost-
and problem-shifting is limited. Such a strategy could help achieve
degrowth as it would start a slow process of relocalising economic
activities, likely one of the preconditions for well-being for all in a
degrowth world.
e transformative nature of repurposing money
Measures aiming at adapting the monetary policy of general-
purpose money (i.e., most currencies) and nancial regulation to
environmental issues are, in themselves, symbiotic. However, they
may have deeper, highly transformative implications. In western
high-income countries, cheapness and abundance of fossil fuels were
key factors in the high productivity gains that formed the backbone
of the social compromise of the post-war era at the root of the
welfare state (Cahen-Fourot and Durand ). Cutting access to
fossil fuel-related activities from money and nance means eectively
removing them from the division of labour and from socially
accepted economic activities. Based on the historical importance of
fossil fuels, this would therefore most likely trigger very deep changes
in our societies.
Depending on the design and issuer, complementing or replacing
general-purpose money with special-purpose moneys can be a
symbiotic, interstitial or ruptural strategy. Special purpose currencies
focusing on particular goods have symbiotic character, as they
limit the impact of economic crises on particular sectors but have
no impact on the economic processes at large. LETS schemes and
currencies issued by local authorities would be located in the realm
of interstitial transformations, driven by the motive that large
numbers of “small transformations cumulatively generate qualitative
shifts” (Wright , ). Such schemes, however, currently have
limited geographical reach and are located in niches with little
impact on global capitalism. LETS schemes further lack incentives to
be adopted and thus often have little durability, in contrast to more
durable currencies issued by local authorities.
Under given circumstances the implementation of a
complementary currency as suggested by Hornborg () is not
ruptural: it would rely on the current administration to manage
the currency. Nevertheless, such a currency could provide the
ground for a second circuit of value that provides the precondition
for a degrowth society. Particularly in the long run, it could lead
to degrowth, as it allows for the formation of local production and
consumption structures despite current capitalism. Hence, such a
strategy could contribute to the formation of degrowth societies as it
would start a slow process of relocalising economic activities.
Transforming the nancial system from below: the Austrian
Cooperative for the Common Good
Since its founding in , the Cooperative for the Common
Good (GfG) has pursued as its primary goal a change in the
current monetary and nancial system shaped by the principles of
sustainability, democratisation and orientation for the common
good. e idea of founding a democratic bank in Austria emerged
in , as a reaction to the nancial and banking crisis and, more
specically, to Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann’s call for
the establishment of a “bad debt bank” for Germany. In , the
“Association for the Promotion and Foundation of a Democratic
Bank” was created, and a bank strategy and business plan were
developed. In , the cooperative “Bank for the Common Good”
was founded. By the end of , the cooperative had about ,
individual and corporate members.
Using money as a means to shape the nancial system for the
common good
In , a crowdfunding platform and a common good audit were
developed and established. e creation of a payment institute,
following the Austrian Payment Services Act of , was considered
in order to open a common good account. is was planned as a
preliminary step towards a full banking licence for a bank oriented
towards the common good, owned and supported by a civil society
movement – the cooperative members – and strongly committed to
democratic and ethical principles. Cooperations with partner banks
were initiated, for example with GLS, Germany’s largest social-
ecological bank, which participated as one important investor in
the development of the payment institution. By the end of , the
Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) rejected the application
of the cooperative for a payment institute licence for formal reasons.
e extensive additions and preliminary work required would have
meant high investments, and it would still have remained uncertain
whether the licence would have been granted. is is why the
cooperative’s general assembly ultimately decided against continuing
the application process. In general, the FMA is rather reluctant
to grant new banking licences – among other things using the
argument that Austria is already over-banked.
Following the rejection, the name of the initiative was altered to
“Cooperative for the Common Good”, and the strategy changed
towards establishing cooperation with existing banking institutions.
Today the cooperative operates in three dierent areas: First, by
providing and facilitating common-good oriented nancial goods
and services in cooperation with existing banking and nancial
institutions. e rst Common Good Account, Common Good
Student Account and Common Good Savings Account in Austria
were launched in cooperation with the Environmental Center of
the Upper Austrian Raieisenbank Gunskirchen in May .
Negotiations with other banks in Austria and Germany are
underway, as well as the elaboration of guidelines for a lending policy
for common good-oriented companies and projects.
e second scope of activity is advocacy for a democratic re-
shaping of the nancial system through political work. is is
being realised through the analysis and critical appraisal of political
and economic activities in the nancial sector, participating in
networks (such as the NGO Finance Watch), and developing
positions and communicating proposals for the implementation of
a common good-oriented monetary and nancial system, such as the
“Moneyfest” (Genossenschaft für Gemeinwohl ).
e third area of work consists in oering policy education about
critical nancial literacy and transformative learning in the Academy
for the Common Good. is includes public lectures, workshops,
online courses, cooperation with the international summer school
“Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems (AEMS), and the
certicate “Money and the Common Good” in cooperation with
Steinbeis University (Germany).
A shift in strategy: from creating a bank to advocating for the
monetary system as a democratically regulated public infrastructure
for the common good
According to its self-image, the Cooperative for the Common Good
sees itself as part of an economic system based on solidarity as an
alternative to prevailing neoliberal and growth-based capitalism.
e overall aim of changing the monetary and nancial system by
founding a democratic banking institution “from below” could be
characterised as an interstitial transformation. e basic idea was to
trigger change by building up a democratic bank – as already existed
in several other countries – as a concrete alternative for customers.
In line with the core principles of interstitial transformation,
namely the building of new forms of social empowerment on
the margins of capitalist society (see Chapter ), participation
and transparency have been seen as fundamental values of the
Cooperative for the Common Good since its beginnings. It aims
at contributing to a revitalisation of the cooperative system and
movement within the nancial sector as the highest participatory
form of organisation and enterprise. erefore, the cooperative
contributes to further development of the already more than
-year-old organisational form of the cooperative in order to
innovatively design and specically expand democratic participation
and opportunities for co-determination on the part of its members
by introducing new methods of decision-making and by shaping the
organisation according to the principles of sociocracy.
After this strategy failed, a change in strategy was developed and
extensively discussed within the cooperative’s member community.
Instead of pursuing the establishment of its own bank, the
Cooperative for the Common Good now seeks to cooperate with
existing banking institutions. e main principle behind it is that
deposits on all common good bank accounts are allocated by the
partner banks as loans exclusively given to ecologically and socially
sustainable projects. e strategy of the cooperative is now to change
the banking system “from within”; a symbiotic strategy nudging
existing banking institutions through cooperation to include, step-
by-step, an orientation towards the common good, sustainability and
ethical values in their business models. e central element of this
strategy is creating and expanding such niches within the existing
system and winning over more banks that oer common good-
oriented accounts and conditioned lending in order to guarantee
sustainable use of funds. In the long-term, this should lead rst
to redirect an increasing amount of money ows into targeted
sustainable projects and activities, and second to change existing
institutions and deepen social empowerment within the current
system so as to ultimately transform it.
is example shows that the implementation of transformative
strategies of the monetary and nancial system depends signicantly
on external conditions, such as, in this case, legislation and nancial
market policies. It also shows the need for a certain kind of exibility
for transformative actors. e shift from interstitial towards
symbiotic strategies was not a consciously analytical decision of
the Cooperative of the Common Good, but a strategic adjustment
to manoeuvre in their given context. However, this meant
compromising on one of their areas of activities – the provision of
nancial goods and services. eir organisational development, as
well as advocacy and educational work themselves can be seen as
partial symbiotic strategies. Both interstitial and symbiotic strategies
are aimed, in a general sense, at raising awareness of the importance
of the nancial and monetary system for our economy and hence
society as a whole. What remains central, however, is what money is
used for and where it ows.
Conclusion: transformation as an emergent property
In recent history, deep modications in the rules governing money
were often associated with a deeper change in the economic system
(Guttmann ). We think that the measures and underlying
strategies outlined in this chapter are likely to change the monetary
and nancial system to work towards economic degrowth. However,
any of these measures and related strategies need to be assessed both
contextually and relationally, in combination with other strategies.
Assessing the transformative nature of these measures is therefore
speculative.
Wright’s categories are ideal types but, in reality, strategies can have
interstitial, symbiotic and ruptural aspects within them. For instance,
a shift of the monetary regime towards sustainability-based rules may
constitute initial steps towards a more sustainable (or, at least, fossil-
free) capitalism. Although not aimed at overcoming capitalism itself,
it would create a rupture within capitalism between dierent growth
regimes. In turn, breaking with the fossil economy would challenge
many of the existing power relations built into it and could be an
opportunity for more radical agendas. Indeed, the history of socio-
political changes indicates that the ruptural, interstitial or symbiotic
nature of strategies is more an emergent property observed ex-post
than an ex-ante decision by agents of change, whatever their initial
intentions might be.
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Chapter : Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the eld of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva
Decoloniality and anti-colonialism have recently gained more
attention from degrowth scholars. e time is ripe to advance an
anti-colonial position for the degrowth movement. Accomplishing
this task is strategic for two reasons. First, it allows us to draw
a clearer line separating degrowth from imperialist visions of
environmentalism. Such visions go from “one-world” discourses that
erase the colonial nature of the global economy under the banner
of (sustainable) development to ecofascist narratives that pursue
stability in the Global North, where the political economy of growth
is facing its contradictions, while at the same time arguing that the
Global South represents an ecological threat. e second strategic
reason is that it lets us move forward with building solidarity and
stronger alliances with peripheral movements. If red and green social
movements in the Global South still have diculties seeing degrowth
as an anti-imperialist ally in the North, as pointed out by Rodrígues-
Labajos et al. (), it may be a sign that the above-mentioned line
between degrowth and imperialist environmentalism has, in the
worst case, not been drawn well enough, or, in the best case, has
been miscommunicated.
But where to begin? I take as a starting point one key aspect of
colonialism that is already familiar to degrowth: ecologically
unequal exchange and the imperialist logic of global trade. Some
ecological economists have, for decades already, scrutinised the social
metabolism of the world economy and denounced the transfers of
resources from peripheries to capitalist centres of accumulation as
the ultimate result of international trade (Hornborg ). A small
group of high-income countries that concentrate one-sixth of the
world’s population are net appropriators of resources and labour
embodied in trade from all the rest of the world. Such patterns
of unequal exchange can be traced and quantied: high-income
countries consume approximately more raw materials than they
produce domestically, more labour
, more land and
more energy (Dorninger et al. ). All this surplus is acquired in
the global market, which means that the rest of the world needs to
work more hours and extract more resources from their territories
than their populations consume to transfer it to the richest countries,
without equivalent material compensation.
is perverse international division of labour is neither natural
nor inevitable – quite the opposite. It is an order that is violently
imposed and ideologically justied by core states in the Global
North and transnational corporations. ey accomplish this
using a selection of instruments from their imperial toolbox: racist
ideology, military enforcement, colonial occupation, control over
nancial systems, intellectual property and patents, trade agreements
and hybrid war, depending on the geographic context, point of
history and balance of power. One ideological tool from that box
that has been addressed in the degrowth critique is development.
Development is capitalism’s utopian horizon that justies
international trade and gives meaning to peripheral countries’
engagement with global markets as exporters of commodities (Prado
). Development ideology promises that, within capitalism,
all countries may eventually reach the standards of welfare and
47 Here I refer to the concept of labour embodied in traded products, as traced by Dorninger
et al. (2021). However, the same imperial structures push migrant workers from the
peripheries to core countries, where they provide both cheap and qualied labour more
directly.
48 Even though it is possible to argue that the world economy is more complex than binaries
such as “Global South–North”, “Core–Periphery” or “Richer–Poorer countries” might
suggest, the global patterns of ecological unequal exchange establish a material basis to
distinguish a group of countries that are net appropriators of resources and work (core,
Global North) from a second group of countries that are net suppliers (periphery, Global
South). Further, the existence of these patterns at the global level do not deny the existence
of similarly unequal dynamics at sub-national or intra-group levels.
consumption experienced by the middle classes of the core countries,
regardless of their position in the world economy.
We know this promise is false. First, it is ecologically impossible
to universalise those standards since the material footprint required
would go way beyond planetary boundaries. is argument has been
extensively repeated by environmentalists in the Global North since
the conservative conclusions of the report on Limits to Growth in
the s.
Another reason is that the ways of living in the North
depend on ecologically unequal exchange and on the international
division of labour that deprives other peoples of self-determination
and keep them trapped in selling their labour and resources for
cheaply in the global market. So, a mode of living that requires
exploitation cannot be universalised, otherwise, there would be no
one left to be exploited. erefore, if the economics of growth and
development hide colonial core-periphery relations, it is a task for
the degrowth movement to unveil these relations and tackle their
roots. However, this task should not be taken for granted as if the
politics of degrowth were inherently anti-colonial.
ey are not.
Scholars and activists sometimes repeat in publications and
conferences the idea that degrowth is a project “in the Global North,
for the Global North” replying to the common accusation that
degrowth imposes a new agenda on the Global South.
However,
this reply is a trap that leads degrowth back to Eurocentric strategies
for a social-ecological transformation. For instance, work time
reduction policies in the Global North have been largely discussed
without considering the colonial reliance on cheap labour from the
South – both directly in the form of migrant labour in the North
49 Pointing out the ecological impossibility of universalisation of Western consumption
standards is not an anti-colonial statement. As pointed by Furtado (1983), this same
nding may be used to support the conservative position that the “development of the
Global South” represents an ecological threat.
50 In a recently published opinion piece, Jason Hickel suggests that degrowth politics is
essentially anti-colonial, describing it as “the sharp edge of anti-colonial struggle within
the metropole” (Hickel 2021, 2).
51 is accusation is raised by environmental justice organisations in the Global South, see
Rodrígues-Labajos et al. (2019).
and indirectly in the form of labour embodied in products traded
with the South (Dorninger et al. , Pérez-Sánchez et al. ).
Some post-growth scholars do not acknowledge how global patterns
of unequal exchange relieve the burden of work in the Global North
and argue that work time reduction policies only concern high-
income countries.
is reects a Eurocentric framing and a too
narrow sense of solidarity towards the Global South, which is quite
far from the anti-colonial politics of degrowth described by Hickel
().
Degrowth cannot focus on the Global North because degrowth
is about the world economy. It is impossible to address the global
and colonial nature of capitalism and the social-ecological crisis
only accounting for processes in the Global North, expecting for
the South to harvest the benets of freed ecological and conceptual
space. Embracing an internationalist perspective means creating a
framework for a social-ecological project that accounts fully for each
country’s engagement with globalisation, ghting imperialism from
within the core countries where most of the degrowth movement is
based.
So, how can degrowth ght ecologically unequal exchange
and imperialism? We can refer to Wright’s () framework to
distinguish dierent modes of transformation. While ruptural
and interstitial modes of transformation seek to break away from
capitalist institutions and create alternatives in their margins, they do
not spare us from changing the existing institutional forms, which
requires operating under a symbiotic mode of transformation. e
latter relates both to taming strategies that aim to reduce capitalism’s
harms, and dismantling strategies that aim at transcending
capitalism’s structures. I argue that, when it comes to unmaking
ecologically unequal exchange and imperialism, the potential of
52 Such a view was held by Juliet Schor in the thematic panel on Work at the Degrowth
Vienna 2020 Conference. Similar assumptions are found in Knight et al. (2013) and Van
Den Bergh (2011). It is fair to point exceptions in the degrowth literature such as Kallis
(2011) that suggests a 21-hour work week as possible common ground for a North-South
common struggle.
degrowth relies on the strength of strategies operating under the
logic of dismantling, while relying solely on strategies that focus on
taming may contribute to greenwashing colonial relations in the
name of degrowth.
is point can be illustrated with the energy transition within
the framework of a Green New Deal (GND) without growth. e
GND for Europe proposal – which was engaged with by degrowth
scholars (Mastini et al. ) – acknowledges that raw materials for
a renewable energy transition in Europe would come from outside
its borders, calling for a principle of “supply chain justice” to “ensure
that materials required are handled with a commitment to social and
environmental justice in the rest of the world” (Adler et al. , ).
Even though this principle sets the ground for strategies focused on
reducing harm, it does not denaturalise the very function of global
supply chains – unequal exchange and appropriation of resources
from global peripheries. What kind of “just” supply chain can
ensure that the resources for a green energy transition in the Global
South are also secured? Minerals that ow from the South for a
“pioneering” green transition in the North will not be available when
the time comes for the South itself to move away from fossil fuels,
threatening energy security and sovereignty in the peripheries.
is is clear in the case of copper, one of the key materials for
an energy transition based on renewable energy technologies as
we know them. Current copper stocks in use are already unevenly
distributed worldwide, following colonial patterns of ecologically
unequal exchange: lower-income countries count on – kg/
person, while higher-income countries range from to kg/
person (Exner et al. ). From a degrowth perspective, which
aims for ecological sustainability and social equity, equalising metal
stocks among countries should be achieved without further copper
extraction
. is goal, however, could only be accomplished under
the condition of returning copper from core countries back to the
53 Convergence of stocks does not mean that all countries should apply equal amounts of
metals per capita in their economies, but it is a requisite for social equity that a fair share
is at least available for everyone.
peripheries (Ibid.). A “supply chain justice” strategy is not enough
to ensure that. To transcend structures, a green energy transition
must revert the unequal distribution of resources and stop perverse
ows from the poorest to the richest regions. Without doing so, a
green transition may be just another name for a new wave of colonial
appropriation of resources in a post-fossil fuel global economy,
maintaining core-periphery relations.
Degrowthers might nd inspiration in anti-imperialist movements
in the Global South that explicitly refuse such international division
of labour from the other end, calling for strategies that are closer to
the logic of dismantling. In Brazil, for instance, e Movement for
Popular Sovereignty in Mining (MAM, Movimento pela Soberania
Popular na Mineração) promotes a critical debate within the Brazilian
society about the primary exports of minerals, fostering a project
of popular power. ey argue that “only with popular organisation
can we gradually build the proposal for a new model for the use of
mineral goods, in the form of social property and for the benet of
the entire Brazilian people, which represents popular and national
sovereignty over all mineral goods” (MAM n.d., translation by
the author). Another Brazilian movement, e Landless Workers’
Movement (MST, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra)
advocates for food sovereignty and agroecology as a national
social-ecological project, directly ghting export-led agribusiness,
demanding a popular agrarian reform that may distribute and
democratise land. According to their vision, “the export policy
for agricultural products should only be complementary, seeking
the greatest possible added value and avoiding the export of raw
materials” (MST n.d., translation by the author). Both MAM
and MST have anti-imperialism at the core of their programmes
and challenge the colonial character of international trade using
a dierent vocabulary, but with many points that connect to the
degrowth framework.
Finally, strategies that employ the logic of dismantling would
require that degrowth proposals expose deeper tensions in North-
South relations. Looking at the evidence on ecologically unequal
exchange, an anti-colonial perspective could suggest that pushing
for reducing consumption and decreasing reliance on imported
labour in the Global North are requirements to enable the rest of the
world to get rid of the burden of colonial appropriation of resources
and labour. Only after that would it be ethical from a global point
of view to advocate for further reduction in consumption and
working time in the North for the sake of ecological sustainability
and improving domestic wellbeing. e inversion of these priorities
denotes indierence or complicity with colonial structures,
relegating the “good life” to core countries and making degrowth a
project “in the North, for the North.” e politics of degrowth do
not carry anti-colonial values by default. Shaping degrowth as an
anti-imperialist and anti-colonial movement depends heavily on a
commitment to dismantling ecologically unequal exchange rather
than reducing its harms.
References
Adler, David, Pawel Wargan, and Sona Prakash. . “Blueprint for Europe’s Just
Transition.”e Green New Deal for Europe.
Dorninger, Christian, Alf Hornborg, David J. Abson, Henrik Von Wehrden, Anke
Schaartzik, Stefan Giljum, Robert Feller, Klaus Hubacek, Jan-Oliver Engler, and
Hanspeter Wieland. . “Global Patterns of Ecologically Unequal Exchange:
Implications for Sustainability in the
st
Century.” Ecological Economics ,
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Exner, Andreas, Christian Lauk, and Werner Zittel. . “Sold Futures? e Global
Availability of Metals and Economic Growth at the Peripheries: Distribution and
Regulation in a Degrowth Perspective.”Antipode, no. : –.
Furtado, Celso. .O mito do desenvolvimento econômico. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e
Terra.
Hickel, Jason. . “e Anti-Colonial Politics of Degrowth.”Political Geography
, no. .
Hornborg, Alf. . “Towards an Ecological eory of Unequal Exchange: Articu-
lating World System eory and Ecological Economics.”Ecological Economics,
no. : –.
Kallis, Giorgos. . “In Defence of Degrowth.” Ecological Economics, no. :
–.
Knight, Kyle W., Eugene A. Rosa, and Juliet B. Schor. . “Could Working
Less Reduce Pressures on the Environment? A Cross-National Panel Analysis of
OECD Countries, –.”Global Environmental Change, no. : –.
MAM (Movimento pela Soberania Popular na Mineração). n.d. Quem somos.
https://www.mamnacional.org.br/mam/quem-somos/.
Mastini, Riccardo, Giorgos Kallis, and Jason Hickel. . “A Green New Deal with-
out Growth?”Ecological Economics, .
MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra). n.d. Quem somos. https://
www.mamnacional.org.br/mam/quem-somos/
Pérez-Sánchez, Laura, Raúl Velasco-Fernández, and Mario Giampietro. . “e
International Division of Labour and Embodied Working Time in Trade for the
US, the EU and China.”Ecological Economics, .
Prado, Fernando C. . A ideologia do desenvolvimento. São Paulo: Lutas Anti-
capital.
Rodríguez-Labajos, Beatriz, Ivonne Yánez, Patrick Bond, Lucie Greyl, Serah Mung-
uti, Godwin U. Ojo, and Winfridus Overbeek. . “Not so Natural an Alliance?
Degrowth and Environmental Justice Movements in the Global South.”Ecologi-
cal Economics: –.
Van den Bergh, Jeroen. . “Environment versus Growth – A Criticism of ‘De-
growth’ and a Plea for ‘A-Growth’.”Ecological Economics, no. : –.
Wright, Erik O. . How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21
st
Century. London:
Verso.
A case in the eld of trade and decolonialisation:
litigation as a tool for resistance and mobilisation in
Nigeria
By Godwin Uyi Ojo
Introduction
In the Global South, there is a growing resistance to Transnational
Corporations’ (TNCs) extractivist development model embedded
in the colonial legacy of resource expropriation and unequal
exchange of goods and services. Oil exploitation activities result in
environmental degradation and pillaging of natural resources by
TNCs and structures of imperialism often supported by European
and North American national governments, which has resulted in
the pauperisation of Africa.
Nigeria’s politics and economy revolve around oil dependency.
Notwithstanding the benets from oil and the projections of
impressive economic growth rates, such benets are short-lived
and unsustainable due to growing poverty and environmental
degradation. Despite trade imbalance, revenue from oil is signicant
for the Nigerian economy and accounts for of GDP, of
government expenditures and of foreign exchange earnings
(Ajayi ). Yet, it is the communities that bear the brunt of
environmental degradation and human rights abuses from persistent
gas aring and frequent oil spills. e untold eect of “violent
environments” is severe on the local people and has led to the
destruction of their sources of livelihoods, including farmlands,
rivers, and streams, which they depend on for shing and farming
occupations. From persistent despoliation and the onslaught against
the local people, TNCs continue to laugh on their way to the banks
as they count their prots while local communities, especially in
Ogoniland, cry in mortuaries on a daily basis.
is chapter draws on multiple cases in Nigeria and focuses on
environmental justice, social movement-building and strategies of
litigation to address environmental degradation, social inequalities,
and the protection of livelihoods – many of which are in line
with degrowth proposals. A mix of approaches is applied by these
movements that aim towards decolonisation and reversing the
plunder of natural resources. I discuss the various strategies of
resistance, in this case by the NGO Environmental Rights Action/
Friends of the Earth Nigeria, while adopting Wright’s strategies and
logic of anti-capitalist transformation (). In particular, I show
how, in the case of Nigeria’s environmental justice movements, the
ruptural mode of transformation, which seeks a sharp confrontation
or a break with existing institutions, seems to combine well
with aspects of symbiotic transformations, which seek to reform
institutions within the current system (see also Chapter ). My
experience in combining activism and research, as well as through
observing trends across three decades of being actively involved in
environmentalism, contribute to my framing of these strategies. In
most contexts discussed here, there is a plurality of strategies, each
with varying degrees of success.
Advocacy as resistance and as a degrowth strategy
Decolonisation of trade through environmental justice struggles
against capitalist exploitation of people and the environment is a
major concern. Such eorts are wide-ranging, from actions seeking
to hold TNCs accountable to claims of injustice, to those seeking
to roll back their operations, or even dismantle them. TNCs’
practices of environmental racism lead to double standards in their
responses to environmental degradation. Environmental racism is the
practice of lowering environmental standards and locating harmful
projects in mostly black populated communities, or environmental
injustice that occurs within a racialised context both in practice
and in policy (Beech ). Environmental standards deployed in
the Global South are dierent from those deployed and specied
by the OECD guidelines as operating principles in Europe. While
TNCs rely on their national governments to conduct trade in Africa,
the situation is compounded by a neocolonial legacy of empire-
building, where resources are carted away from poor communities,
with increasingly violent resource conicts at the sites of extraction.
Indeed, corporatisation, or corporate capture of the state and natural
resources, only empower the state and corporations to suppress and
silence dissenting voices.
One important strategy for degrowth is indirectly linked to the
concept of ecological debt, demanding environmental justice and
payment of ecological debts incurred by industrialised countries due
to the exploitation of natural resources in the Global South. Nigerian
writers such as Festus Iyayi () applied the concept to challenge
capitalism and the “incalculable and indemniable damage” done to
Africa supported by state structures of imperialism and called for a
development paradigm shift. In the last two decades, from a political
ecology perspective, I have been evolving demands for a switch from
a fossil-based economy to a post-extractivist economy based on
energy democracy in Nigeria, with several transition manifestos that
call for an end of oil exploitation (Ojo , , , ).
I describe a strategy of litigation that employs advocacy as
resistance. On the surface, legal demands for clean-up in the case
of spills, environmental remediation, and compensation including
administrative costs and nes serve as a deterrent in the future.
Advocacy involves internationalising campaigns from the local to the
global. ose seeking to promote an economic system that is in line
with degrowth principles in Nigeria and Africa are internationalising
their advocacy and campaign strategies to build local resistance
against TNCs and the state. It is important to note that such social
actors, activists, grassroots movements, and civil society groups have
no ready notion of the concept of degrowth, nor do they designate
themselves as such. Nonetheless, they are engaged with disruptive
tendencies and increasingly deploy strategies of resistance to halt or
slow down the process of the vociferous capitalist system. ey aim
to disrupt, even if temporarily, the “rhythm of extractive capitalism”
(see Chapter ).
In the process of litigation, access to justice is critical. At the
national level, Fagbohun and Ojo (, ) list some scenarios of
people losing access to justice due to “sleeping on their rights” or
responses that are later than the specied time window to litigate
in oil-related court arbitration processes in Nigeria. We argue that
access to justice is restricted when violations appear apparent, but
victims are unable to seek legal action, or when cases are brought
to court and compensation is paid, but without due regard to the
extent of environmental damage. In some cases where court action is
used, cases are deliberately delayed on technical grounds as a means
of buying time and frustrating the litigant. ese cases are more
serious in jurisdictions where governance structures are inadequate,
as is often the case in the Global South, but less so in the North.
is may have prompted growing eorts by claimants to seek redress
in countries in the North.
A fundamental part of the strategy is social mobilising across
spatial scales. Multi-scalar social mobilising and persistence of
international and local civil society groups in the form of large
demonstrations is one clear strategy of degrowth actors. In Nigeria,
our pioneering eort during the formative stages of the NGO
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria in
was coupled with the legacy of Ken Saro Wiwa. Environmentalism
from the mid-s internationalised the environmental justice
campaigns that directly attacked the market premium of Shell
products, eroding its corporate image, social premium, and the social
licence to operate. e ultimate goal was to make the extraction
unviable and decolonise trade. Although these activists paid the
supreme price through state repression and the hangman’s noose
through a kangaroo court verdict under a military regime, their
legacy of local resistance to Shell is emblematic of a most formidable
resistance, on a global scale, to a TNC, and this eectively locked
in thousands of barrels of productive capacity per day. Although
litigation eorts are currently ongoing to redress the wrongful, extra-
judicial killing of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight compatriots, oil and
gas extraction continue unabated in parts of the Niger Delta where
oil reserves are located. at said, in the Ogoniland community,
community actions and civil society groups’ concerted eorts
forced the government to embark on a clean-up, which started in
. Vegetation is gradually recovering decades after the end of oil
exploitation in the area.
TNCs often externalise production costs to third parties and
environmental activists confront capitalism through court action
to account for such externalities. In the dicult political terrain
associated with bad governance in Nigeria, litigation was initially
deployed as a non-violent advocacy tool to draw public awareness to
support a cause of action, put environmental issues on the political
front burner, and not necessarily to win cases. is was because in
the early s during the military dictatorships, it was foolhardy
to contemplate winning environmental justice cases against TNCs,
which enjoy tremendous support from their parent companies and
countries of domicile.
Litigation can be seen as a central degrowth strategy. It seeks ways
to make “justice and sustainability comparable” (Demaria et. al. ,
). is is related to environmental justice struggles and the climate
change movement seeking redistributive income for the impacted
communities dispossessed of their natural resources. e Bodo vs.
Shell case provides an example. A major oil spill in destroyed
the environment and rural livelihoods, such as polluting the Bodo
communities’ sh ponds and farms. Eventually, Shell was forced
to make a payment of GBP million. Shell sought to redistribute
income in an out of court settlement in London in . After this
court case, a ood gate of court cases against TNCs was opened to
redress harm and recoup losses (Vidal ). However, there is an
inherent contradiction since there was no actual redistributed income.
e monetary sum paid by Shell only compensated for the damages
of livelihoods of farming and shing from and oil spills.
In another court case involving four shermen against Shell over a
major oil spill across coastal communities in the Niger Delta,
community representatives from Ikot Ada Odo, Goi and Oruma
sought redress in Dutch courts. e landmark judgement in favour
of the shermen and their entitlements to fair compensation in
was a radical revolutionary shift because it established precedence
of international jurisdiction against Shell (and TNCs) over the
environmental atrocities committed overseas (Agency Report ).
Activists involved in the litigation process describe the court case
as a victory for the environment. Shell spills destroyed ecosystems,
wetlands, farmlands and crops and shing ponds of the litigants,
who represent hundreds of impacted community members. By
seeking to account for externalised production costs and deploying
litigation to attract environmental remediation and restitution to
victims of environmental degradation, the aim is to disrupt and
make the sector increasingly unviable. Such actions encourage others
to do the same so that TNCs can possibly be overwhelmed with,
for example, a oodgate of court cases, bad publicity, public odium,
rising production costs, considerable legal fees, and payment for
damages and restitution.
It is important to also note that litigation helped to secure local
productive assets, the preservation of ecosystem goods, services, and
nature as well as the survival of local people. When compensation
is paid as a form of redistributive income, impoverished locals taste
from the pot of honey that they were denied during the production
phase.
Apart from these mainstream strategies, some others seek a far
more radical resistance to capitalism through agitations, insurgences,
and arms against the state and the TNCs, as well as shutting down
oil facilities or dismantling corporate power (Tamuno ). is
approach has been expanded to include a challenge against the
appropriation of a communities’ natural resources, otherwise
called “resource control” or local resources for local control. Such
“relocalisation and repoliticisation” of resources (Chertkovskaya
) has in many ways led to, ownership and control over natural
resources based on the commons. If communities control their local
resources, ultimately, they will have the right to exploit them for
themselves or the right to say no to harmful development by locking
away potential harmful carbon. is “closed-door” strategy shuts out
TNCs and aims to curb capitalist orientation that thrives on more
trade, production, and even more consumption.
ese struggles face some limits due to limited resources and the
ubiquitous forces of capitalism. TNCs are neither state nor non-
state actors but wield enormous political and economic power over
states in the Global South – and also in the North. As a response,
there is a global push within the framework of the United Nations
for a global legally binding treaty to hold corporations accountable
for their environmental degradation and human rights violations in
their sites of operation. is has been taken up in Nigeria as part of
the strategies of resistance and eorts to dismantle corporate power
(Ojo ). Although the treaty has been discussed for decades, it is
yet to see the light of the day due to the undue corporate inuence.
A similar due diligence law in the European Union is in the making,
which would bind TNCs with uniform regulations at home and
overseas. e aim is to subject TNCs to a supra-national governance
approach, rather than individual nations having to confront these
giants by themselves. Global legally binding mechanisms will bring
TNCs under global supervision, enhance the chances of more
successful litigation through expanding access to justice, and in
turn, incur additional costs in remediation and legal fees that push
production costs upward.
Conclusion
e mix of approaches and strategies introduced relate to the wider
processes of social-ecological transformation. e disparate eorts
are not necessarily termed degrowth per se by writers, activists, or
environmental defenders. However, collectively, from the local to
the global, they address the disillusionment, poverty and widening
inequality gap perpetrated by capitalism that they contend with.
Litigation strategies have been largely successful but, invariably,
these go only as far as formal state and corporate structures will
accommodate. In the case of the four shermen against Shell that
was won in , it was the Dutch government that picked up
the legal bills through a specialist legal agency, which could be
translated as a form of corporate capture, minimising damages to
Shell’s advantage. In this way, the symbiotic transformation that
involves litigation could be limited in scope and practice because it
seeks transformation within existing institutions and structures that
invariably reinforce capitalism. It is tokenistic and changes depend
on TNCs and state institutions for incremental victories which could
come at great costs to the degrowth movement.
Legal battles against TNCs are often drawn out over long periods,
up to and sometimes over ten years, and tend to reduce prots
through legal costs. However, sometimes litigation against TNCs
seems to favour them due to their nancial war chest to confront
litigants, which allows them to frustrate litigants and buy time.
Further, TNCs’ payment for damages often translates only to
monetary compensation to victims of environmental injustices while
environmental remediation and preservation, which is more costly, is
largely ignored or if at all, done perfunctorily. is places the heavy
burden of climate change vulnerability, loss, and damage on the poor.
A global legally binding mechanism is both ruptural and
symbiotic. e symbiotic approach can be highly susceptible to co-
optation, which could reinforce corporate capture and dispossess
local people of natural resources, to the advantage of the state and at
the behest of neocolonial powers. Decolonisation of trade could help
hone degrowth strategies and present bottom-up alternatives to the
prevailing economic model through decentralised energy democracy.
e emerging forms of energy democracy that involve community
energy cooperatives in both production and supply at local
scales represent a major shift, yet they are still within a symbiotic
transformative agenda.
At another level, a dismantling of the prevailing capitalist model
– reinforced by the demands for local resources and for local control
– would enable a bottom-up approach to development, as an
interstitial approach to transformation. A post-petroleum economy
for Nigeria has been proposed, with government ocials recognising
the potential of the campaign but without any policy commitment.
Ultimately, ecosystem preservation, reduction of corporate prot
and redistribution of wealth all add up as degrowth strategies to
dismantle corporate power and capitalism.
To conclude, a post-extractivist agenda, encapsulated by the
concept of “leave the oil in the soil”, should gain more traction and
may serve as a rallying call for degrowthers’ social mobilisation for
resistance at the local, national, and international levels.
References
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against Shell.” Premium Times Nigeria, January , . https://www.premium-
timesng.com/news/top-news/-oil-spill-environmental-rights-group-hails-
judgement-against-shell.html.
Ajayi, Wale. . “Nigerian Oil and Gas Update”.KPMG, April , . https://
home.kpmg/ng/en/home/insights///Nigerian-Oil-and-Gas-Update.html.
Beech, Peter. . “What is Environmental Racism and How Can We Fight it?”
World Economic Forum, July , . https://www.weforum.org/agenda///
what-is-environmental-racism-pollution-covid-systemic/.
Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina. . “From Taming to Dismantling: Degrowth and An-
ti-capitalist Strategy.” Degrowth.info (blog), September , . https://degrowth.
info/blog/from-taming-to-dismantling-degrowth-and-anti-capitalist-strategy.
Demaria, Federico, Francios Schneider, Filka Sekulova and Joan Martinez–Allier.
. “What Is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement.” Envi-
ronmental Values , no. : –.
Fagbohun, Olanrewaju and Godwin U. Ojo. . “Resource Governance and Ac-
cess to Justice: Innovating Best Practices in Aid of Nigeria’s Oil Pollution Vic-
tims.” Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies journal of Environmental law :
–.
Iyayi, Festus. . “Ecological Debts and Transnational Corporations in Africa.”
Niger Delta Peoples World Congress. http://www.nigerdeltapeoplesworldcongress.
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ALCORPORATIONSINAFRICA.htm.
Ojo, Godwin U., ed. . Envisioning a Post Petroleum Nigeria: Leave the Oil in the
Soil. Ibadan: Kraftbooks.
Ojo, Godwin U., ed. . Climate Change and Energy Democracy: A Pathway to De-
velopment. Bénin, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa: Environmental Rights Action
and Friends of the Earth Nigeria.
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Global Legal Environmental Court of Justice.” Environmental Rights Action and
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Vidal, John. . “Shell Announces m Pounds Payout for Nigeria Oil Spills.”
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About the Authors
Ernest Aigner is a research associate at the Research Institute for Law
and Governance (Vienna University of Economics and Business –
WU) and the Institute for Economic Geography and Geoinformatics
(WU). He holds a PhD in Socioeconomics. His dissertation
examined the state of global economics using bibliometric methods.
He also teaches Ecological Economics and Sustainable Work, and is a
lecturer at the Alternative Monetary and Economic Systems Summer
School.
Viviana Asara is Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University
of Ferrara and a research aliate of the Institute for Multi-
Level Governance and Development at the Vienna University of
Economics and Business. Her work hasfocused on political ecology
and environmental governance. In particular, she has undertaken
research ondegrowth, democracy, social movements, commons, social
innovations, and political parties. Together with Luigi Pellizzoni and
Emanuele Leonardi, she has recently edited the Handbook of Critical
Environmental Politics (Edward Elgar), forthcoming in autumn .
Carol Bardi is a Brazilian feminist economist and researcher
currently nishing her master’s at the Copernicus Institute in Utrecht
University through a Utrecht Excellence Scholarship. Carol enjoys
discussing ways to build a decolonial society based on happiness for
all beings. She believes in autonomous movements, commonality,
and sport as a tool for community building.
Nathan Barlow (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Socioeconomics
at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, researching
the role of strategies for social-ecological transformations. He is
interested in the relationship between radical long-term systemic
change and short-term necessary steps. Nathan is on the editorial
team of degrowth.info, was a coordinator ofthe Degrowth Vienna
2020 Conference: Strategies for Social-ecological Transformation, and has
been coordinating this collected volume together with Livia Regen.
Ulrich Brand(he/him) is a Professor of International Politics at the
University of Vienna. His main research interests are the crisis of
liberal globalisation, (global) social-ecological topics such as resource
politics and the green economy, critical state and governance studies,
and Latin America. Together with Markus Wissen, he introduced
the concept of the “imperial mode of living”, on which a book
was published in with Verso, London. He is a member of the
“Global Working Group Beyond Development” and of the “Latin
American Working Group Alternatives to Development”, both
coordinated by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Christina Buczko is coordinator of the Academy for the Common
Good, the educational institution of the Cooperative for the
Common Good, which provides political education on the nance
sector and economics. She is a sociologist and political scientist.In
the past, sheworked in sustainability research, advocacy and human
rights observation in Central America.
Corinna Burkhart has been active in the degrowth movement since
. She is currently completing her PhD in Human Geography
at the University of Lund in Sweden. She has worked at the
Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie and edited Degrowth in Movement(s),
together with Nina Treu and Matthias Schmelzer.
Gabriela Cabaña (she/her) is an anthropologist and PhD researcher
at the London School ofEconomics and Political Science,
currently studying energy policy and planning in Chile from an
ethnographic perspective. She is a member of the Centro de Análisis
Socioambiental (CASA), an organisation researching and building
critical perspectives for social-ecological transformation in Chile, and
of the campaign Chiloé Libre del Saqueo Energético.
Louison Cahen-Fourot (he/him) is an assistant professor in
Economics at Roskilde University (Denmark) and a guest researcher
at WU Vienna’s Institute for Ecological Economics (Austria). He
works on ecological macroeconomics and the political economy
of capitalism and the environment. He acknowledges funding by
the Österreichische National Bank’s Anniversary Fund (OeNB
Jubiläumsfonds project number ).
Ekaterina Chertkovskaya(she/her) is a researcher based at Lund
University, working on degrowth and critical organisation studies.
Her research addresses contemporary crises and explores paths for
social-ecological transformation. She has been writing on corporate
violence, problems with work and employability, and the plastic
crisis, on the one hand, and focusing on degrowth as a vision for
transformation, its political economy, and alternative models of
work and organising, on the other. Ekaterina is also a member of the
editorial collective of ephemera: theory & politics in organisation.
Ian Clotworthy is an activist and photographer in the campaign
Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen. He originally comes from
Ireland and is a longtime resident of Berlin. He holds a B.Sc. In
Physics from the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is currently
completing a M.Sc. In Cognitive Systems and Natural Language
Processing at the University of Potsdam. He has experience
volunteering in the climate justice movement, and is not yet formally
aliated with degrowth.
Corinna Dengler (she/her) is a feminist ecological economist and
degrowth scholar-activist, who just moved (back) to Vienna, Austria.
Sheworks as a postdoctoral researcher at WU Vienna, is interested
in topics at the intersection of feminisms, the environment, and
decoloniality, andco-coordinates the network Feminisms and
Degrowth Alliance (FaDA).
Marion Drutis an associate professor of economics at Institut Agro
Dijon, France. Her research interests include sustainable mobility
and vehicle sharing, and her research is conducted within the
CESAER research lab, convened by three institutions: Institut Agro
Dijon, INRAE and University Bourgogne Franche-Comté.
Julianna Fehlinger is a social ecologist and works as a managing
director of Via Campesina Austria (ÖBV – Austrian Association of
Mountain and Small-Scale Farmers). She is part of the organising
team that develops a participatory supermarket in Vienna. She
previously worked on a collective ecological farm in Upper Austria
and on alpine summer pastures in Switzerland.
Nicolas Guenot works for the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie in
Leipzig, Germany, on digitalisation and social-ecological critiques of
digital capitalism. He is also a computer scientist and co-organised
the Bits & Trees conference in in Berlin.
Gabu Heindl (she/her) is an architect and urban planner in
Vienna with a PhD in philosophy. She teaches at the Architectural
Association in London and is a professor of Urbanism at the
Nuremberg Institute of Technology. As an activist, she is involved
in housing and urban struggles. As an architect, she is involved
in realising non-market housing projects. She is the author of
Stadtkonikte: Radikale Demokratie in Architektur und Stadtplanung
(City conicts: Radical Democracy in Architecture and Urban
Design, ).
Constanza Hepp studied Journalism in Santiago, Chile, and
completed an MSc in Human Ecology in Lund, Sweden. She
is currently living in Northern Italy, establishing a community-
supported agriculture project and facilitating environmental
education workshops in local public schools. She is also a member
of the editorial team at degrowth.info, working to bridge academic
activism and social practices that have the potential for systemic
change.
Joe Herbert holds a PhD in Human Geography from Newcastle
University, UK. His research interests centre around degrowth,
climate justice and radical imaginations. He is on the editorial
team at degrowth.info and a co-founder of the degrowthUK online
platforms.
Elisabeth Jost (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the Institute for
Sustainable Economic Development at the University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. She is a board member of FIAN
Austria and is engaged in the Nyéléni movement for food sovereignty.
Max Koch is a sociologist and professor of social policy and
sustainability at Lund University. His research addresses patterns of
capitalist restructuring and how these are reected in social structures
and the environment. His books include Capitalism and Climate
Change: eoretical Discussion, Historical Development and Policy
Responses and Postgrowth and Wellbeing: Challenges to Sustainable
Welfare (with Milena Büchs). His articles on degrowth appeared in
journals such as Ecological Economics, Global Environmental Change,
Futures, Environmental Values, Environmental Politics, Social Policy
and Society and British Journal of Sociology.
Halliki Kreinin (she/her) is a founding member of the Vienna
Degrowth Association and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the
University of Münster, where she works on the “.° Lifestyles”
project, aiming to analyse barriers and enablers of degrowth
lifestyles and their public acceptance. She received her PhD (“Trade
unions and the social-ecological transformation of work”) from
the Ecological Economics Institute at the Vienna University of
Economics and Business.
Miriam Lang (she/her) is a professor of Environmental and
Sustainability Studies at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar
in Quito, Ecuador. Her current research focuses on the critique of
development and growth, systemic alternatives, and the territorial
implementation of Buen Vivir.
Tahir Latif is Secretary of the Greener Jobs Alliance in the UK and
a co-author of the report Climate Jobs: Building a Workforce to Meet
the Climate Emergency, produced by the Campaign Against Climate
Change Trade Union Group. He was previously on the National
Executive Committee of the Public and Commercial Services Union
(PCS) and President of PCS’s Aviation Group, representing workers
across the aviation sector.
Leon Leuser is a freelance sustainability researcher and consultant
based in Strasbourg.
Samantha Mailhot (she/her)is pursuing a PhD in Environmental
Studies at York University, Toronto. From a political ecology
perspective, she studies degrowth policy structures and public
opinions on degrowth in the Canadian context. Samantha is also on
the editorial team of degrowth.info.
Mario Díaz Muñoz is a PhD candidate and researcher at the
Department of Sustainability,
Governance and Methods at Modul University in Vienna. He is also
an Early Stage Researcher within Marie Skłodowska Curie ITN in
the i-CONN Network.
Tonny Nowshin is an economist by training, development sector
specialist by profession and degrowth and climate justice activist by
passion. She has been working to centre anti-racist and decolonial
perspectives in the degrowth and climate movement since .
Godwin Uyi Ojo is a political ecologist and co-founder of
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
and is currently its Executive Director. He is an environmental
human rights advocate ghting for social justice, involved in
social movement building, championing a system change with a
community-driven Just Transition that resonates with degrowth
strategies. He was a discussant during the virtual Degrowth Vienna
2020 Conference and panellist during the European Conference on Due
Diligence Regulations held in .
Susan Paulson(she/her/they/them) is a Professor at the University
of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies. She researched and
taught about human-environment relations during years in Latin
America, and she then taught sustainability studies during years
in Europe. Recent books includeMasculinities and Femininities
in Latin America’s Uneven Development() ande Case for
Degrowth().
Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins (she/her) is a Professor in the Faculty
of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Toronto,
where she teaches Ecological Economics, community economic
development, climate change science and policy, and critical
interdisciplinary research design. Her areas of research include
feminist ecological economics, climate justice, degrowth, commons,
and participatory governance.
Panos Petridis is a post-doctoral interdisciplinary researcher,
working at the interface between science, society and the
environment. As part of the Institute of Social Ecology of the
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in
Vienna, his work has focused on island studies, socio-ecological
transitions, participatory research and degrowth transformations.
Christina Plank (she/her) works as a postdoctoral researcher at the
Institute for Development Research at the University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. Her research and teaching focus
on state theory, political ecology, social-ecological transformation
and critical agrarian studies.
Lisa Francesca Rail is a doctoral student at the Institute for Social
& Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, researching
alpine pasture commons in Austria. Additionally, she works for the
Österreichische Berg- und KleinbäuerInnenvereinigung, the Austrian
chapter of La Via Campesina.
Georg Rath has been a cooperativist in Cecosesola since and
was trained there as an acupuncture therapist. He has cooperated in
the Health Centre since its founding in , and has been engaging
with degrowth since .
Andro Rilović (he/him) is a lecturer in Degrowth and European
Economics at the University of Amsterdam. He is interested in
degrowth and anarchism, and how they can be applied to creating
new community development models.
Matthias Schmelzeris an economic historian, social theorist and
climate activist. He works at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena
and is active with Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie and Network
for Economic Transformation. He has authorede Hegemony of
Growth, co-authored e Future is Degrowth,and co-editedDegrowth
in Movement(s).
Colleen Schneider is a PhD student at the Institute for Ecological
Economics(WU). Her research and teaching focus on the political
economy of monetary and scal policy in a social-ecological
transformation.
Joëlle Saey-Volckrick (she/her) is a lecturer in Ecological Economics
at the Berlin School of Economics and Law and an independent
researcher associated with the Institute for International Political
Economy Berlin (IPE) and the Research Center for Social
Innovation and Transformation (CRITS). She works in a local food
cooperative in Grenoble and is an editor at degrowth.info.
Lisa M. Seebacher (they/them) works as a social scientist at the
Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) in Vienna, Austria and are
currently studying early-childhood education. ey were involved
with organising the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference.
omas SJ Smith is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral
researcher in the Department of Geography at Ludwig Maximilian
University (LMU), Munich, Germany. He is a member of the
Community Economies Research Network (CERN) and his research
interests relate to social-ecological transformation, the social and
solidarity economy and post-growth economies. His involvement in
this book was inuenced by work undertaken on the EUKI-funded
project “Just Transition in the European Car Industry” alongside
colleagues from Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and
Germany.
Ania Spatzier is an activist for Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen.
By academic training, she is a political sociologist with her research
interest lying mainly in the eld of social movements as actors for a
social-ecological transformation.
John Szabo is a PhD Candidate at the Central European University
and a Junior Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Regional
Studies.
Gabriel Trettel Silva is a researcher and lecturer at the School of
Sustainability, Governance and Methods at the Modul University,
Vienna. He is a PhD candidate in Socioeconomic Sciences,
investigating imperialism and anti-imperialism in global social-
environmental struggles. His master’s thesis explored how the
degrowth framework approaches the Global South. In São Paulo,
he worked as a consultant in solidarity economy projects and with
UNESCO on the integration of the SDGs into public education.
Gabriel was also part of the editorial team of the degrowth.info web
portal.
Nina Treu (she/her) is part of the degrowth and climate justice
movement and is active as a coordinator, facilitator and networker.
She is a co-founder of the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie in
Leipzig, Germany, and has been working there since . In her
belief, the only way to achieve the much needed social-ecological
transformation is by bringing dierent social movements together.
Andrea Vetter writes, researches, narrates, organises and bakes
cheesecakes for social-ecological change. She designs interfaces for
transition theory and practices, mainly for the cultural hub Haus des
Wandels in East Brandenburg, the think tank Konzeptwerk Neue
Ökonomie in Leipzig and the magazine Oya.
About the Editors
Nathan Barlow (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Socioeconomics
at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, researching
the role of strategies for social-ecological transformations. He is
interested in the relationship between radical long-term systemic
change and short-term necessary steps. Nathan is on the editorial
team of degrowth.info, was a coordinator ofthe Degrowth Vienna
2020 Conference: Strategies for Social-ecological Transformation, and has
been coordinating this collected volume together with Livia Regen.
Noémie Cadiou (she/her) is currently nishing her undergraduate
degree in Human Geography at UCL (University College London).
Her dissertation looks at the potential of citizens’ assemblies for
climate and environmental policy-making. She is a convinced cyclist
and has joined Degrowth Vienna and the editorial team of this
collected volume in late .
Ekaterina Chertkovskaya(she/her) is a researcher based at Lund
University, working on degrowth and critical organisation studies.
Her research addresses contemporary crises and explores paths for
social-ecological transformation. She has been writing on corporate
violence, problems with work and employability, and the plastic
crisis, on the one hand, and focusing on degrowth as a vision for
transformation, its political economy, and alternative models of
work and organising, on the other. Ekaterina is also a member of the
editorial collective of ephemera: theory & politics in organisation.
Max Hollweg (none/he/him) works on various projects for social-
ecological transformation with Degrowth Vienna, Attac Austria and
other groups. Max was also a coordinator of the Degrowth Vienna
2020 Conference and holds a master’s degree in Socioeconomics from
the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Christina Plank (she/her) works as a postdoctoral researcher at the
Institute for Development Research at the University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna. Her research and
teaching focus on state theory, political ecology, social-ecological
transformation and critical agrarian studies.
Livia Regen (she/her) studied Socio-Ecological Economics and
Policy (SEEP) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
She was part of the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference organising
team and has been coordinating this collected volume together with
Nathan Barlow. She is an editor at degrowth.info and engages in
paid labour researching the technology-society-ecology nexus in the
context of urban transformations.
Merle Schulken (she/her) is an MA Economics candidate at the
New School for Social Research in New York. She is interested in
the question of how dierent modes of social provisioning interact
in the context of a social-ecological transformation. She also holds
a master’s degree in Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy (SEEP)
from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and has been
an active member of Degrowth Vienna for the past two years.
Verena Wolf (she/her) is currently pursuing a PhD on the
interrelation of global commons, property and climate change
as a researcher in the SFB “Structural Change of Property”
at Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Germany. She was a
coordinator of the Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference and completed
her master’s degree in Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy
(SEEP) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Acknowledgements
We would like to sincerely thank the following people, institutions
and funding bodies, without whom this endeavour would have been
incomplete to impossible. ank you for journeying with us and
making the idea for this book transform into reality.
Firstly, we would like to thank all contributing authors – for
your knowledge, for your time, for your openness to embarking
on this journey and for your patience during our sometimes non-
linear review processes. In particular, we would like to thank
authors contributing to Part II of this publication who were thrown
into an experimental collaboration process that required building
bridges between academia and activism and the integration of their
vocabularies.
Secondly, we would like to express our gratitude to all supportive
reviewers; your expertise has been invaluable to making this book
cohesive and substantive. ank you, Stefania Barca, Hauke
Baumann, Anton Brokow-Loga, SaraDahlman, Santiago
Gorostiza, Daniel Gusenbauer, Joe Herbert, Katharina Mader,
Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle, Lisa M. Seebacher, Susanne Siebel,
Tone Smith, Jacob Smessaert and Ersilia Verlinghieri.
irdly, we thank our main funding body, MA, the Culture
Department of the City of Vienna. Your generous support rendered
this project possible in the rst place.
Fourthly, we thank Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung for enabling a
smooth project start in the autumn of thanks to their nancial
contribution.
Similarly, we thank the ÖH Universität Wien who supported us
nancially in the cover design process. For the beautiful cover design
resulting from several rounds of revisions that required patience and
an eye for detail we are indebted to Dana Rausch.
Fifthly, we are immensely grateful to our language editor Aaron
Vansintjan for his excellent editing work, but also for his critical
reading and his always poignant suggestions.
Sixthly, we are full of gratitude for our colleagues from
Degrowth Vienna who have gently, supportively and constructively
accompanied the book compilation process. Without Degrowth
Vienna as a backbone, this writing process would have been
innitely more complicated.
We would like to sincerely thank MayFly and in particular Toni
Ruuska and Mihkali Pennanen for their generosity and patience in
the process of working with us.
Last but not least, we would like to thank the members of the
Degrowth Vienna 2020 Conference’s Advisory Board who in dierent
ways contributed to the realisation of this project. In particular,
we would like to thank Uli Brand for his trust in the process and
helpful guidance.
Supporting organisations
Degrowth is a research area and a social movement that has the
ambitious aim of transforming society towards social and ecological
justice. But how do we get there? That is the question this book
addresses. Adhering to the multiplicity of degrowth whilst also
arguing that strategic prioritisation and coordination are key, Degrowth
& Strategy advances the debate on strategy for social-ecological
transformation. It explores what strategising means, identifies key
directions for the degrowth movement, and scrutinises strategies
that aim to realise a degrowth society. Bringing together voices from
degrowth and related movements, this book creates a polyphony for
change that goes beyond the sum of its parts.
" This book is the perfect gateway to strategy and action for our time. "
Julia Steinberger
" This is a book everyone in the degrowth community has been waiting for. "
Giorgos Kallis
" This is a true gift, not only to degrowthers, but to all those who
understand the need for radical change. "
Stefania Barca
" Above all, Degrowth & Strategy is a work of revolutionary optimism. "
Jamie Tyberg
www.mayflybooks.org
